The Power of Three
by Rosepixie
Summary: An evil power is rising again and the trio must work to stop it, but can they do so without going insane or dying first?
1. A Threat

The Power of Three  
  
Harry Potter had been best friends with Ron Weasley ever since the day that he had stood in the train station all by himself trying to figure out where platform 9 ¾ was, and with Hermione Granger since that same day when she had come into their cabin on the train looking for Neville's lost pet. They had all been so busy fighting Voldemort in their last few years at Hogwarts that none of them had dated much, and they had avoided jeopardizing their friendship when they were always in so much danger by an unofficial agreement not to date each other until it was all over. They may not have found romance while at Hogwarts, but the friendship between them grew incredibly strong. After getting out of Hogwarts, Ron went into business with his brothers Fred and George selling tricks and treats. He spent most of his time travelling around the continent scouting new locations, setting up new stores, and checking up on the ones already started. After a year Harry and Hermione both returned to teach at Hogwarts. They enjoyed teaching and getting to spend time together without having to worry about saving the world. No one at Hogwarts was surprised when a romance sprang up between them. Headmistress McGonagall seemed particularly delighted with it. Harry and Hermione were happier than they remembered being in a long time.  
  
Hermione stood at the head of her class lecturing about the Devil's Snare. Her class, the first year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs sat trying not to sleep. One boy in the front row raised his hand. Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes.  
  
"Yes, Briton?"  
  
"My uncle Severus says that when you were a first year, you saved Ron Weasley and Professor Potter from a Devil's Snare plant while you were all trying to keep you-know-who from returning."  
  
Hermione closed her eyes for a minute and sighed.  
  
"Yes, Briton, I did."  
  
A little girl raised her hand.  
  
"What is it, Clara?"  
  
"How did you save them?"  
  
"By paying attention in Herbology!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"It's easy," said a voice from the doorway. Hermione whirled around to find Harry standing just inside the room. "She knew how to make the plant let go of us so that it didn't strangle us."  
  
"Harry, don't you have a class to teach?"  
  
"Nope. And it's about time for your class to go too." Hermione looked up at the clock and saw that it read 'time for lunch.'  
  
"Alright. I'll see you all tomorrow! Read the next chapter in your books for tomorrow. It's on discerning the magical properties in a plant." She said as her class gathered up their books and filled out. The little girl whose question Harry had answered was the last to leave. She stared at Harry dreamily as she walked past him out of the room. Harry sighed and rolled his eyes. Hermione laughed.  
  
"You seem to have a new admirer, Harry!"  
  
"I know. She spends her entire Defence against the Dark Arts lesson staring at me. It's irritating. It seems like there is at least one girl like that in every class! At least there are fewer of them than there were last year. Maybe after a decade or two there won't be any. Then I will know that it's safe to walk down Diagon Alley again without being stared at and worse."  
  
"I know the feeling. I've got a couple of students like that myself. I never thought that anyone would be star-struck over me!"  
  
"How do you know that they don't stare at you because you are the most gorgeous creature on the planet?"  
  
"Harry Potter! You know very well that's not true!" said Hermione, blushing from her neck to her forehead.  
  
"Of course it's true! I can't believe that you don't know that!"  
Hermione laughed.  
  
"Oh Harry! What would I ever do without you?"  
  
"Probably not much on Friday nights!" They both laughed. He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and entwined her fingers in his hair. His arms reached around her waist and pulled her closer to him. After a minute of serious kissing, Harry broke away and smiled at her.  
  
"I almost forgot why I came!"  
  
"What?" asked Hermione with a mock hurt look on her face. "It wasn't just because you wanted to snog me?"  
  
"I always want to snog you, but I have something that just came by owl post for both of us." He waved an envelope in front of her face.  
  
"Why didn't it come this morning when the regular post came?"  
  
"It was a very familiar brown speckled owl who tends to sleep late."  
  
"Oh! Let's open it!"  
  
Harry opened the envelope and pulled out a letter. He read it out loud.  
  
  
Dear Harry and Hermione,  
  
I miss you both. I can't wait to get back to England. The continent is always interesting, but sometimes I really miss you and my family. Travelling so much alone is really lonely, especially when you're used to a house full of Weasleys! I do love my job though. It's fun to watch kids who've never tasted candy like ours or imagined the kinds of things Fred and George come up it to cause mischief walk through one of our stores for the first time! Still, I sometimes envy the two of you for getting to stay at Hogwarts, even though we all stopped being students there two and a half years ago. It must be fun! I would make a lousy teacher though. Anyhow, I wrote to tell you that I should be back in England on the twelfth of November. I'll come up to Hogsmeade the next weekend and see you. I will be in England until January. We have to spend some time together during the Christmas holiday.  
  
Your friend,  
Ron Weasley  
  
  
"Oh good!" exclaimed Hermione. "We haven't seen Ron in ages!"  
  
"I know, he's been busy on the continent for months."  
  
"I miss seeing him! The three of us used to spend so much time with each other, especially over our seventh year when we were fighting Voldemort."  
  
"We can finally tell him about us, beautiful," said Harry as he took Hermione's hands.  
  
"Oh, that's right! He hasn't been back yet since…"  
  
"Since we admitted how crazy we are about each other?"  
  
"Something like that!" agreed Hermione, laughingly. Harry laughed too.  
  
"So, beautiful, shall we go have something to eat? McGonagall wants us to join her in her office."  
  
"Alright. I wonder why she wants to see us?"  
  
"She didn't say, but we shouldn't keep her waiting."  
  
They walked through the corridors together smiling as they passed groups of students. The girls giggled as they pass and the boys smirked. Hermione smiled as they passed two first year boys being lectured by a first year girl for not doing their homework. The girl looked so serious and it reminded her so much of Ron, Harry and herself. The girl looked up at Hermione as if to say 'they are hopeless!' Hermione stopped, bringing Harry to a halt as well. Harry smiled as well at the tableau before them.  
  
"June," said Hermione conspiratorially to the young girl, "take it from someone's who's been in your position before. Many times before." She shot Harry a playfully accusing look. "It's going to take and awful lot more than just a lecture or two (or fifty) to change them. Right, Harry?"  
  
"Yeah. You might have to save their lives a few times first!"  
  
"Just don't ever give up on them. Eventually they'll get it. And you will probably make two good friends in the process."  
  
"I won't give up, Professor Granger!" exclaimed the girl.  
  
"Good girl!"  
  
"Good luck!" Harry counselled the boys in a loud whisper. "It might be easier if you just gave up peacefully!" They looked mournfully at him and each other as Harry and Hermione said goodbye and continued on their way to Professor McGonagall's office.  
  
Once they reached her office and were invited inside, Harry and Hermione greeted the headmistress. She gave them each a cup of warm herbal tea.  
  
"So," Harry inquired, "why did you ask us to come?"  
  
"Well," Professor McGonagall said carefully, "I would like to be able to say that it was purely for the pleasure of your company, but it's actually to ask for your advice on something."  
Harry and Hermione looked at each other in confusion.  
  
"We'll give you whatever advice we can, but I'm not sure why you need our help!"  
  
"I'm sure you can help me," assured the headmistress. "You both underestimate yourselves too much! You are two of the most powerful people in the wizarding world! You just don't realize how amazing you both really are! I will always sort of envy the amount of power the two of you and Ron Weasley have." They sat across from her blushing and staring into their teacups. "It seems that we need to at least ask for your advice as we face potential danger again."  
  
"Danger?" Harry asked anxiously. "What sort of danger? We killed Voldemort three years ago!"  
  
"It seems that the Death Eaters are regrouping."  
  
"What?" exclaimed Hermione. "How can they? All of the ring-leaders are in Azkaban!"  
  
"Yes," agreed Harry, "we made doubly sure of that!"  
  
"I know, but they seem to have chosen new leaders."  
  
"They don't have the rings any more, though," Hermione said in as logical a tone of voice as possible. "Those rings were a major part of their power. If they don't have that power, it will take them a while to build up to being a threat again."  
  
"That's part of what we were worried about. We know that they don't have the twelve rings. Do either of you know what kind of power the rings hold? It seems that no one knows and the knowledge could be helpful."  
  
Harry and Hermione looked at each other, neither of them sure what to do.  
  
"You two know something," accused Professor McGonagall. "Why are you hiding things from me?"  
  
"Professor McGonagall," said Harry uneasily as Hermione absently ran her fingers over the rim of her teacup, "we have to talk to Ron before we can tell you any more. We can say that they are probably not a major threat right now." He stopped as though he was thinking.  
  
*Harry, what is it?* Harry heard Hermione's question in his head. *You've thought of something.*  
  
*Yes, I have. We need to talk to Sirius right away.*  
  
*We have to talk to him about the rings right away anyway. We have to make sure that they don't have access to the power of the rings even when they are locked away. Why else do we need to see him?*  
  
*Because my guess is that he has more information about this than McGonagall. Fred and George must know about it, and they have probably given the information to Sirius already. Maybe he can help us figure out what to tell her and what to do about it.*  
  
*That's not a bad idea. Ron will be here in a week. Should we wait for him before discussing it with Sirius?*  
  
*No, I think that our best bet would be to speak with Sirius as soon as possible and then bring Ron in on it as soon as he gets back.*  
  
*This could be a bigger threat than Professor McGonagall realizes. Death Eaters are dangerous, even without the rings. They must be planning something. I didn't expect them to begin regrouping so soon.*  
  
*Neither did I. We have to respond quickly.*  
  
*Yes, we do. We will have to contact Sirius as soon as we leave here. What should we tell McGonagall now?*  
  
*Not much.*  
  
*Are you sure? They might be a danger to the school.*  
  
*If they had regrouped enough to be a danger to the school, then we would know about it already. It sounds like she just found out about it, so I think that we would be safer just warning her to be careful for now. She can protect the school we enough for now. We can tell her more after we figure out more about this.*  
  
*Alright.*  
  
"Professor McGonagall," Harry said aloud, "we need some time to look into this, consider what threat it may pose and figure out what exactly should be done about it. Until then, we want to warn you not to underestimate the Death Eaters. Even without the rings and the ring leaders, they could be extremely dangerous."  
  
"You were discussing this telepathically, weren't you?" inquired McGonagall curiously.  
  
"Yes, we were," Hermione affirmed.  
  
"How interesting! I didn't know that you were telepathic!"  
  
"Yes, well…" Harry stammered. "I think that Hermione and I should go away from Hogwarts for a few days to work on this problem."  
  
"Of course. I will arrange for someone to cover your classes while you are gone. Leave instructions for what you want them to do. Report back to me when you return so that your substitutes may be notified."  
  
"Thank you, Professor McGonagall. We should be back within two or three days. Now, I think that we should go right away."  
  
"Of course. Do you need anything from me?"  
  
"No. We'll let you know if we do. Good afternoon, Professor." Harry and Hermione stood up together. They left quietly, leaving Professor McGonagall sure that they hadn't told her anything that they should have. She wondered what exactly they were keeping from her and why they had to keep it from her. 


	2. The Return of a Friend and the Loss of a...

Hermione quickly packed a small bag with a few casual robes and some necessities. She left instructions for her substitute on her desk. Harry met her in the front foyer and took her bag from her.  
  
"Are you ready to go?" he asked quietly.  
  
"As ready as I'll ever be," she answered with a sigh. They began to make their way away from Hogwarts. "I never imagined that we would have to deal with this so soon!"  
  
"Neither did I. I had hoped that after Voldemort's death and the loss of the rings they would have had a more difficult time regrouping. We'll just have to deal with it. Hopefully it hasn't gotten out of hand yet."  
  
Once they reached Hogsmeade, Harry and Hermione promptly disapparated. They reapparated on the front yard of a pretty little cottage in Wales. Hermione knocked on the front door and awaited an answer. After a moment, a tall, handsome man opened the door and looked at his guests in surprise.  
  
"What are you two doing here?" he asked as he led them inside. "Don't you have classes to teach?"  
  
"We have a bit of a problem," Harry began as he sat next to Hermione on a sofa across from Sirius, who sat perched on the arm of a chair looking at them seriously. "Professor McGonagall called us into her office today to ask for our advice because the Death Eaters are regrouping. She started asking a lot of very difficult questions, like what the rings do."  
  
"They couldn't have the rings, right?" Sirius asked darkly.  
  
"No, they're still locked away in the Gringott's vault. It has taken both all by surprise that they've started noticeably reorganizing so soon. Anything that you know that might explain it would be extremely helpful.  
  
"Harry," Hermione asked, "are you absolutely certain that the rings are still in Gringott's?"  
  
"I don't know how they could not be, but maybe when Ron gets here we should go look."  
  
"I think that it's worth the trip, just in case. I also think that we need to determine how much of a threat this really is, and what we should do about it. Harry, if we've underestimated the Death Eaters this could be really bad."  
  
"I know. Sirius, we may want to call a meeting."  
  
"Quite a few people are out of the country, you know," Sirius answered.  
  
"I know, but let's hold one anyway with the people who are able to come. I think that it's important. This is almost two years ahead of our earliest estimation of when they might start becoming a problem again. How did we miss this?"  
  
"I'll call a meeting."  
  
"Set it for five days from now. Ron will be back by then," Harry instructed.  
  
"Harry," Hermione said reasonably, "perhaps we should set it for the day after. We do have to go check on the rings."  
  
"I forgot about that. Yeah, maybe we should push it back a day. Sirius, on second thought, I think that Hermione's right."  
  
"Six days it is then," Sirius agreed. "I'll check with the twins in the next day or so to find out what they know about all of this and I'll let you know by owl post."  
  
"Alright," Harry said with a nod. "We are going up to the manor house, so you might be able to catch us with Floo powder as well if you really need us."  
  
"I hope that I won't have to get ahold of you that badly, I'd rather not bother you up there."  
  
"I'm going to see if I can find anything else out, so I'll let you know if I find anything interesting."  
  
"Alright. I guess that I'll see you both later then." Sirius stood up and led them to the front door. He shook Harry's hand and gave Hermione a warm hug.  
  
"Thank you so much, Sirius," Hermione said as she hugged him. "We really appreciate all the help that you've been giving us. I honestly don't know what we would do without you."  
  
"It's been my pleasure, Hermione," he answered. "Goodbye!"  
  
Sirius shut the door behind them and Hermione looked to Harry questioningly.  
  
"So Harry, what is the manor house?"  
  
"Come here and I'll show you."  
  
Hermione walked over and took Harry's hand.  
  
"I'm going to take you just outside of it so that you can see what it looks like before we go inside."  
  
"Alright."  
  
Harry disapparated the two of them. The first thing that Hermione saw when they reapparated was an enormous old house. It was three stories high and made of red brick. It really was an old manor house, Hermione realized. She had thought that 'manor house' had just been something that Harry and Sirius called it. It was a fabulous house, although 'mansion' was more appropriate.  
  
"Harry," Hermione breathed, "it's beautiful!"  
  
"I knew that you would like it! Would you like to see the inside?"  
  
"Of course!"  
  
Harry opened his hand and a key appeared in it. He walked up the front door and fitted the key into the lock. He opened the door and held it for Hermione.  
  
Hermione gasped as she walked inside the entryway. It was huge. Across from the door was a huge staircase swept up majestically. Above their heads was a beautiful large stained-glass light fixture that cast patches of coloured light around the room. Harry took Hermione's bag from her and set it and his suitcase floating up the stairs.  
  
"Would you like the grand tour?" he asked.  
  
Hermione nodded and took the arm held out for her.  
  
After the tour they decided to go back down to the kitchen for something to eat. There was very little food, so the tried to prepare what was there: a box of breakfast cereal, three apples and a few carrots. Harry turned some water into milk as Hermione cut up the apples and carrots.  
  
"I've hired some house elves, but since I wasn't really planning on being here much until the Christmas break, they don't start until then."  
  
"It's alright. We can manage just fine, although we should probably buy some food tomorrow morning."  
  
"Good idea. I don't fancy eating the furniture."  
  
"How did you ever afford this house, Harry? It must have cost a fortune!"  
  
"I paid for the house with the money that was given to me, although I have quite a bit of money from my parents as well. Didn't the ministry pay you some reward money for the defeat of Voldemort?"  
  
"Of course they did, but not nearly as much as you, I guess! I didn't actually kill him remember? You did that on your own. I just made sure that you stayed alive long enough to do it."  
  
"You did a lot more than that. Without you I never would have found him or had enough power to kill him. Without you…"  
  
"…you and Ron would still be stuck in that Devil's Snare at Hogwarts! Harry, you know perfectly well that you would have done just fine without me. You are the one with power coming out of your ears."  
  
"Hermione, I have lots of power, but you're the one who knows the best way for it to be used. So don't ever try to claim that I would have been fine without you. Without you and Ron, I would have died long before we ever got past our fourth year."  
  
They ate their supper and then Harry led Hermione to the library. It was a huge room with high ceilings and wall-to-wall bookcases, most of which were still empty. There was a fireplace and several overstuffed chairs. The room also had two large tables. On one of the tables was an assortment of maps and pieces of paper covered in scribbled notes. Harry led Hermione over to that table and with a wave of his hand a fire began crackling and popping in the fireplace. He began rifling through the maps looking for one specific one. Finally he pulled out a rather large map of the British Isles. It had different coloured markings scribbled on it. He set it on the top of the pile and opened the drawer under the table. He pulled out a pale purple crystal suspended on a thin gold chain.  
  
"Are you ready?" he asked.  
  
"Of course," Hermione replied.  
  
Harry held the chain out so that the crystal hung over the map and Hermione held her hand out over his. They spent almost two hours standing there trying to find out anything that they could about the Death Eaters, but came up with no useful information. Hermione sank into one of the chairs by the fireplace and rubbed her temples. Harry came over and turned her head by the chin to look up at him.  
  
"I know that it's been draining, beautiful," he said soothingly, "and I'm sorry that nothing came from it this time. I think that we need a break. How does that sound?"  
  
"Harry," Hermione replied, "a break sounds wonderful. What did you have in mind?"  
  
"Have I shown you the master bedroom yet?"  
  
"I seem to recall it vaguely."  
  
"Let's refresh your memory a little bit then."  
  
Hermione awoke the next morning curled up under a down quilt on a beautiful old four-poster bed. She noticed that she was alone in the bed and sat up to see where Harry was. He was sitting with his back to her at a desk under the windows. She summoned her pale blue dressing gown from her suitcase and wrapped it around herself before walking over to stand behind him. She wrapped her arms around Harry's neck and peered over his shoulder at what he was writing. It appeared to be a letter to Ron (although with Harry's handwriting, one could never be too sure). She tried to read it, but stopped when her headache started to return.  
  
"I used to wonder," she said softly, "if maybe you and Ron actually wrote in code, but after watching him struggle with one of your letters I decided that I must be wrong. At least it wasn't a very reliable code."  
  
"Oh it's not that bad," Harry said as he signed his name at the bottom of the page. He turned to face her and gave Hermione a soft good morning kiss. "You are so beautiful, Hermione," he breathed.  
  
Hermione smiled at him. She didn't think that she was very attractive at all, but Harry certainly made her feel beautiful. She was so happy when she was with Harry. He just felt so very right. Everything about him meant home and comfort and safety to her. She couldn't imagine life without him in her wildest dreams.  
  
"Thank you, Harry."  
  
"I'm going to send this letter off and then we should probably go and buy some food."  
  
Hermione agreed and went off to shower and dress, leaving Harry to wonder how he got so lucky.  
  
That evening, after another fruitless bout of trying to gain some information, Harry and Hermione were sitting by the fireplace quietly. Harry had a stack of papers in his lap written by his students that he was going through. Hermione was balancing two books on her lap and a scroll of parchment was floating next to her. A quill, controlled by her thoughts, scribbled notes on the parchment for her as she worked. Suddenly a familiar snowy owl flew in through the window and dropped two letters into Harry's lap before perching on the back of his chair. He opened the top one first and read it to himself.  
  
"Sirius says that he hasn't found anything that we didn't already know yet," he announced. "The twins had seen that the Death Eaters were regrouping and had been working on finding any more to tell us about it before the reported. They will let us know if they find anything else out."  
  
"Alright," Hermione said. "At least we have someone who has been watching the situation."  
  
Harry nodded and opened the other note. After reading a line or two he smiled and started over, reading aloud.  
  
  
Dear Harry and Hermione,  
  
Jesus Christ, can't you two keep out of trouble for a while? You worry way too much! So what if a bunch of whiny, rich, stuck-up wizards have decided to revive their 'old boys' club? They have no power anymore. I mean, we have their rings and the ringleaders and Voldemort's dead, so what difference does it make? How much damage could they possibly do? I swear, I can't leave you two alone for a minute and not have you decide that the world is going to fall apart if you don't run off and save it, and for some reason, which I never figured out, you always insist on dragging me along too! You two need to learn how to relax and enjoy life once in a while. I swear, for Christmas you two are getting a vacation to someplace far from any Death Eaters or Dark Marks where there are no books except for cheep paperback novels and no forms of communication at all! You are both way too eager to save the world. I promise that it won't fall apart if you leave it alone for a while!  
  
Not that my writing any of this makes any difference since you will run off to be heroes with or without me. I'll be home in four days and then we can pay a visit to Gringott's together. After that we can figure out what to do next. I trust that you called a meeting? When this one is all over, though, you both owe me one hell of a drink! And maybe an ice cream sunday too! Just don't let things fall apart before I get there, alright?  
  
I will be so glad to see you both! I really miss my two best friends! I'll let you know as soon as I get into London. See you soon!  
  
Your friend,  
Ron Weasley  
  
  
Hermione and Harry both started laughing. Harry handed Hermione the letter and she looked at it, but that only made her laugh even harder. It was several minutes before either of them was able to stop laughing and catch their breath.  
  
The next afternoon Hermione was standing before her class again lecturing. She was discussing methods of properly identifying the magical properties of plants to an increasingly less interested fifth year class of Gryffindors and Slythrins.  
  
"So tomorrow," she said, perching on the front of her desk, "I want you to bring your cauldrons and potions kits with you to class. I will have everything else that you will need here waiting for you. And please don't be late! Now open your 'Herbs and Their Magical Properties' book to page 97 so that we can go over what we will be doing tomorrow." Hermione reached behind her and grabbed her book. She opened it up and waited until the entire class had their books open before she went on. "You will be in groups of two or three, which I will set up since last time we tried working in groups didn't go so well. I am going to give each group a different plant and you will have to find out what its magical properties are and then identify the plant, in that order. The first thing that you will…" Just then a pretty bouquet of wildflowers appeared in her lap. She sighed. "Excuse me a moment. You can begin reading page 97 while you wait."  
  
Most of the class watched in interest as Hermione extracted an envelope from among the flowers and opened it. A smile played on her lips, but as she read the note it suddenly faded to a frown. Whispers instantly started all over the room. Harry and Hermione's relationship was the talk of the school. It annoyed the people with crushes on one or the other of them and delighted the romantics. Even many of the boys who normally wouldn't care one way or another wondered what two of the most powerful people in the world's relationship was like. No one really believed that they would ever break up or fall out of love with each other. The relationship seemed to solid, built on seven years of growing up together fighting one of the most evil forces the world had ever seen and then coming back to Hogwarts together to teach. They knew each other better than any other two people ever had because of what they and their friend Ron had gone through together. The sight of Hermione sitting in front of her class frowning over one of Harry's gifts, which usually put her in a wonderful mood for the rest of the day, was causing quite a stir. After a few moments of reading, Hermione walked over to a group of plants in a corner and, after carefully selecting the plant that she wanted, carefully cut off a blossom. It was a small, frail-looking red blossom from a plant that they had never seen her touch before. Most of them had never even noticed the little plant before since it was tucked away by itself in the corner. The whole time that she was picking out a flower her quill was franticly scribbling by itself on her desk. She went over and wrote a few things herself on the page, kissed it and sealed it in an envelope. She set the flower on top of the envelope and waved her hand casually over them, causing both to disappear. Then Hermione turned back to her class.  
  
After classes were over for the day, Hermione hurried through the corridors to Harry's classroom. He was waiting for her in the doorway absently playing with the flower she had sent. He had a troubled look on his face. Hermione rushed up to Harry and buried her face in his chest as he wrapped one arm around her. Students walked by them whispering. By now everyone had heard about the presents that had passed between them (which wasn't unusual) and the reactions each had to them (which was unusual). An owl had dropped a note marked 'urgent' onto Harry's desk as he was lecturing a class of seventh years. He had read it and had suddenly become deathly pale. He had quietly held out a hand and a bouquet of flowers appeared. Harry had scribbled a not to Hermione. Then he had made the flowers and enclosed note disappear. She had received them and also looked upset. Then she had sent a flower and note back, which Harry had been playing with through the rest of his classes. Harry hadn't noticed his students' reactions, but Hermione had spent her afternoon assuring her students, and even Poppy Pomfrey, the school nurse, that everything was perfectly fine between her and Harry. Now, standing in the doorway to Harry's classroom, all of that was forgotten. They were thinking only about the news Harry had received from the Ministry and how it might affect them.  
  
"Harry," Hermione said after a while, "it's going to be alright. We've faced worse than this! We faced worse before we finished our seventh year at Hogwarts!"  
  
"Did we?" Harry asked sceptically. He pulled Hermione into the classroom and shut the door. He leaned back against the door and let himself slide down to the ground. "Hermione, I don't know if we can fight this and win."  
  
"Harry, they can't beat you," Hermione said, kneeling down in front of him. "You are the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter!"  
  
"Yes, Hermione, I am, and do you know why I lived?"  
  
Hermione stared at him.  
  
"Harry, you don't think that this could be that powerful, do you? I mean, it's powerful, but it can't be that powerful."  
  
"Of course it can."  
  
"Harry, stop it! I won't have you doubting yourself! Nothing has changed; you are still the most powerful wizard in the world. If you weren't, Lucius wouldn't have killed himself to try and give the Death Eaters a prayer of stopping you! Besides, your mother gave herself freely and completely for you. If Lucius Malfoy hadn't been in Azkaban, he would not have killed himself. There's the difference. Harry, they are not the same, so don't give his action more meaning that he did. Harry, you can beat this! And now Ron is coming back, so you will have the full force of the power we were given behind you. The three of us managed to defeat Voldemort when we were seventeen; we can certainly defeat some Death Eaters who don't even have the rings anymore. We've all been through Hogwarts completely now, not to mention all the experience we gained from defeating Voldemort and them before. I know that I, for one, have quite a few now tricks up my sleeve."  
  
"What if it's not enough?"  
  
"Harry, I think we could neutralize any advantage Lucius' death may have given them over you. I've been sort of working on an idea for a spell all afternoon. I want to look into it a little more before I tell you about it, but it might make a difference."  
  
"Perhaps we could find a way to set the battle on our terms as well."  
  
"It certainly couldn't hurt!"  
  
"Maybe you're right. We can do this." Harry stood up, pulling Hermione up with him. "By the way," he asked, holding up the little flower (which was looking a bit worse for wear), "what is this? I don't think that I've ever seen one before."  
  
"It's called a Nasturtium flower. It symbolizes conquest and victory in battle. They are wildflowers."  
  
"Victory. I never would have guessed that of such a frail little flower."  
  
"No one would have guessed that a baby would be the only one to live through the AK curse either, but it's true."  
  
"You amaze me sometimes, Hermione. I have no idea what I would do without you. Thank you for being my friend."  
  
"You're pretty amazing yourself. Thank you for being mine."  
  
Harry pulled her into a warm hug before they went off to the Great Hall to get some supper.  
  
The day that Ron got back to Britain Harry and Hermione apparated in to London and went to lunch with him. They spent ten minutes waiting in the Leaky Cauldron before Ron finally apparated in. He walked up to their table with a huge grin on his face. Hermione stood up and shared a warm hug with Ron.  
  
"Welcome back, Ron," she said warmly. "I've missed you so much!"  
  
"I've missed you too, Hermione," he replied. He kissed the top of her head before letting her pull away from him. Then he and Harry shared a hug.  
  
"How was the continent, Ron?" Harry asked.  
  
"Great, but I'm really glad to be home."  
  
"We're very glad to have you back," Hermione assured him. She looked up at her two best friends. Both were very tall and towered over her like giants. She put her hands on her hips. "How did I end up being friends with two bean polls? You are both entirely too tall."  
  
Harry and Ron laughed. Harry held Hermione's chair for her and then sat beside her at the table.  
  
"I'm going to go up to the bar and get a drink," he said. "Do either of you want anything?"  
  
"I'll have another drink," Harry answered. "Just ask him to make my usual. He'll know what it is."  
  
"Hermione?" Ron asked, turning to her. "Do you want anything?"  
  
"A glass of white wine would be nice," she replied after thinking about it for a minute.  
  
"Got it."  
  
Ron went off to get their drinks. Hermione leaned back in her chair, deep in thought. Harry watched her. She was always thinking about something. He frequently wondered what she was thinking about, but he had learned by the time that he was twelve that asking did no good. She would simply smile at him and say 'nothing important' and only her eyes would suggest that she was lying. As he sat there watching her, Ron returned with their drinks. He also looked at Hermione in wonderment, while she didn't even notice that he had come back.  
  
"Any idea what she's thinking about?" Ron whispered to Harry.  
  
"Not a clue. Hermione?" he asked, trying to bring her back to the present. She didn't respond. He touched her shoulder, but she didn't notice.  
  
*Hermione?* he asked in her head. She jumped.  
  
*Harry! Don't do that!* Hermione sent back.  
  
*Sorry. I tried getting your attention out loud, but you didn't respond. This was the easiest way to get your attention.*  
  
*Alright. So what do you want my attention for so badly?*  
  
*Because I think that we should start telling Ron about the Death Eaters and everything.*  
  
*Yes, we should. I think that doing it telepathically might be a good idea, since we happen to be in a crowded tavern.*  
  
*Good idea.*  
  
*Ron?* Hermione said in both Harry and Ron's heads at once. *We need to fill you in on the Death Eater situation.*  
  
*I'm all ears. Or… whatever.*  
  
The three friends spent the better part of an hour sitting at their little corner table talking silently and eating their meal. By the time their food was gone Ron had been brought fully up to date on everything that had happened concerning the Death Eaters. He had also found out about the romance between Harry and Hermione, and had congratulated them on it. They paid for their meals and left the Leaky Cauldron to go and visit Gringott's.  
  
It was a Saturday afternoon, so Diagon Alley was bustling. The three of them had gone barely three steps before a middle aged woman exclaimed loudly to her friend, "Look, it's Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger!" Hermione groaned inwardly and wished that she had Harry's invisibility cloak handy. As they walked, heads turned to watch them and people pointed them out to their friends. A woman walked up to them in front of Flourish & Blott's. She was about their age with short red hair and very revealing robes. She went right up to Harry with a flirtatious smile on her face.  
  
"Harry, I was wondering if you were interesting in going to dinner and out dancing tonight with me," she said as she tossed her hair and batted her eyelashes.  
  
*Are you ready to be in the news again, beautiful?* Harry asked Hermione telepathically.  
  
*Go ahead, Harry. Make me famous again,* Hermione answered.  
  
"I'm sorry," Harry said to the redhead, "but I'm going to have to say no. I'm spoken for. Even if I wasn't, I don't date strangers. As it is, I'm taking my girlfriend out to dinner tonight."  
  
"Who's the lucky girl?" the woman asked in a hurt tone of voice.  
  
"I am," Hermione said, taking Harry's arm, "and I don't appreciate your asking my boyfriend out when he doesn't even know your name."  
  
The woman shrank away from Hermione and mumbled an apology. She hurriedly walked away from them and quickly disappeared into the crowd again.  
  
*Nicely done,* Harry said in Hermione's head.  
  
*Who wants to bet that news of you two being a couple gets to Gringott's before we do?* Ron asked his two friends.  
  
They soon reached Gringott's and were taken into the vaults. They rode far into the caverns with their goblin guide. He finally stopped their cart near a large door. They all climbed out of a cart and Harry noticed a large dragon laying a few doors down. As they approached the door before them, the dragon got up and lumbered over to them. It watched as Harry, Hermione and Ron each held out their right hand and a key appeared in each of their hands. The goblin turned to them.  
  
"First key please," it said, holding out a hand. Hermione handed it her key, which it fitted into one of the door's three keyholes. Then it turned back to them. "Second key please." Ron handed it his key, which was then fit into the second keyhole. Then Harry's key was fit into the third keyhole. With all three keys in place, the goblin stroked the door and it promptly disappeared. Satisfied that they were not thieves, the dragon walked away. Harry, followed closely by Ron and Hermione, walked into the vault. He looked around at the jumble of things, not seeing what he was looking for.  
  
"I don't suppose either of you remembers where we put them?" he asked.  
  
"They are in a black, velvet bag," Hermione answered purposefully. "We put it into the cauldron. So where did we put the cauldron?"  
  
"Well, it was one of the first things we brought in, so it's probably in the back somewhere."  
  
Ron groaned.  
  
"Harry, I can't even see back there with all of this furniture around!" Ron exclaimed.  
  
"Maybe we could hoist Mione over this stuff and have her find it," Harry suggested.  
  
"You were going to ask me about this first, right?" Hermione asked with her hands on her hips.  
  
"Of course! Do you want to try it?"  
  
"Sure. Why don't you lift me up onto that talk? It should be fairly stable." She pointed to a table resting on top of a few boxes. Ron spent a few moments testing the table's stability. Once he was satisfied that it would hold Hermione without collapsing, he nodded to Harry. Hermione stood in front of the table and Harry grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up so that she could sit on the table. She swung her legs up onto the table as she turned around and slid over to the other side of the table. She looked around at the jumble of things. They had brought all of Voldemort's things here as well as all of the Death Eater power and ceremonial things (robes, wands, rings, etc.) and it made for quite a collection. She looked around for the large black cauldron that they had confiscated from the Death Eaters. There was a silver one that had been Voldemort's, but she didn't see the black one… Hermione groaned.  
  
"What is it?" Harry asked.  
  
"It's underneath Voldemort's cauldron. I'm going to need one of you to help me."  
  
"Harry," Ron asked, "are you sure that we can't just assume that they're there?"  
  
"Unfortunately, no," Harry replied. "Mione, can you get down off the table safely?"  
  
"Sure, give me a second," she said as she carefully climbed down onto a chair. As Hermione worked her way down the stack of furniture and boxes, Ron helped Harry up onto the table. Harry made his way down to Hermione's side. She stood looking at the cauldrons curiously.  
  
"The markings on Voldemort's cauldron are interesting," she stated.  
  
"You said that when we brought it in here too," Harry replied.  
  
"Well, it's still true."  
  
They each took one of the heavy cauldron's handles and lifted it to one side. They carefully set it down in a spot Hermione had made for it. Harry reached into the black cauldron underneath and pulled out a black velvet bag.  
  
"We should put it somewhere on the other side of the furniture in case we need to get to it again some time," Hermione suggested.  
  
"Good idea."  
  
Harry slipped the bag into his pocket and he and Hermione began climbing over the stack of things again. Harry climbed up onto the table first. Ron helped him down and then Hermione slid down into Harry's waiting arms.  
  
"Let's make sure that all of the rings are here," said Harry as he took the bag out of his pocket.  
  
"Sure," Ron replied. They shook out the rings and began to count them. Each one was a glittering band of pure silver. All of them were there, so they put them back into the bag and hid the bag in a box of ceremonial Death Eater robes. They left the vault and the goblin resealed it and handed them each their key back.  
  
Once they were back in Diagon Alley they decided to do some shopping. The three best friends spent the rest of the day together enjoying each other's company. Late into the evening they parted to get some sleep before the meeting the next day. 


	3. The Meeting

Chapter Three 

  
  
  
Harry paced back and forth across the floor of the library. He ran his fingers absently through his hair again and sighed. 

"Harry," Sirius said as he walked into the room, "either talk about it or don't, but either way, please sit down. You are going to wear a trench in the floor." 

"I'm sorry, Sirius," Harry replied. 

"Do you know where Hermione is?" 

"She went to the library at Hogwarts. Where else would she go? As long as I've known her, the library was always where she went there was a problem." 

"Harry, what is bothering you?" 

"I just… I had a nightmare last night that really shook me up." 

"Do you want to tell me about it?" 

"When is everyone else going to be here?" 

"Later. Harry, are you going to tell me about it or not?" 

"Tell you about what?" asked Ron as he walked into the room. "Sorry I just apparated in and overheard you. This is one hell of a house, Harry." 

"Thank you. And it's alright. I had a nightmare last night." 

"I thought those stopped after Voldemort died." 

"They did. This was almost more vivid. It wasn't like any dream I've ever had before, even those dreams, it was so real." 

"But it was only a dream, right?" 

"I think so. It's really got me shaken up though. I wish that Hermione would get back already." 

"Where is she?" 

"The library, of course." 

"Don't worry so much, she'll be here soon. I'll be back as soon as I find the toilet." 

"Down the hall on the right." 

"Thanks." 

Ron left the room and walked down the hallway. He shut the door to the washroom and pulled a bit of paper and a quill out of his pocket and began scribbling a note. When he was finished he folded the paper and magically sealed it closed. A few minutes later he walked back into the library where Harry was still pacing with Sirius looking on. 

"Harry, I forgot to send a note off before I left this morning. I wrote it, but forgot to send it since Pig was out playing with Marie." 

"I take it Percy and Anne are visiting." 

"Yes, and both are as annoying as ever!" 

"Hedwig should be around here somewhere." Harry whistled. A few seconds later, the snowy white owl flew into the room. 

"Thanks, Harry." 

"No problem." 

Ron gave Hedwig the note, silently gave the owl instructions, and let her fly out the window. Then he sat down and waited. 

~ 

Hermione sat at one of the tables in the Hogwart's library pouring over a book. Several large volumes were scattered across the table, some open and some not. Next to her, a quill scribbled across an open scroll. She brushed a stray lock of hair out of her face as she worked. She quickly turned the page and kept reading. Suddenly a sealed note fell onto the open book. Hermione looked up to see Hedwig. Her forehead wrinkled in worry. Harry knew where she was and that she would be back before the meeting. What could he possibly be sending her? She opened the note and was surprised to find it was written in Ron's messy scrawl instead of Harry's. She quickly read it. 

Hermione, 

Did you know that Harry had a nightmare last night? He's awfully shaken up by it. It didn't seem like he'd told anyone about it, and since you weren't here I thought I should make sure you knew about it. I haven't seen him like this since Voldemort died. I'm worried about him. He seems really shaken up. Even Sirius seems worried about him, and you know how much it takes to make Sirius really worry. I don't want to draw you away from important research or anything, but I'd recommend hurrying back as soon as you get the chance. 

Ron 

Hermione slipped the note into the pocket of her robes. She sent all but two of the books back to the shelf with a gesture and a word. Then she gathered up the two remaining books and her scroll and quill and hurried out of the library. As she rushed down a flight of stairs, she heard someone call her name. 

"Hermione!" 

She whirled around to find Severus Snape staring at her as he walked down the stairs after her. 

"Yes, Severus?" 

"Are you alright?" 

"I'm fine. Why do you ask?" 

"You and Harry have both seemed so preoccupied the last several days, and now you look positively scared." 

"It's nothing you need to worry about." 

"Are you sure?" 

"Yes. If anything happens that you need to know about, I'll tell you." 

"Alright. I'll talk to you later then." 

"Goodbye, Severus," Hermione said as she turned and continued on her way. She left the building and practically ran to Hogsmeade. As soon as she reached the edge of town, she apparated to Harry's house. Once there, she hurried to the living room. No one was there, so she tried the library. She walked in to find Harry pacing back and forth and Ron and Sirius sitting and watching him uneasily. 

*Thanks for coming so quickly,* Ron sent to Hermione. *Don't tell Harry that I sent for you.* 

*I won't,* she replied. *Thanks for letting me know.* 

*No problem.* 

"Harry," Hermione said gently, "are you alright? You seem upset about something." 

Harry stopped walking and looked at Hermione. He ran his fingers through his hair again. 

"I have a nightmare last night. It was like the ones that I used to have when Voldemort was trying to kill me." 

"Was it the same nightmare?" 

"Not exactly. It was similar. I was tied to a statue in a dark graveyard, but instead of Voldemort himself, I was just surrounded by Death Eaters. I saw them killing people that I know. Both you and Ron were tied to monuments as well so that we formed a triangle around the Death Eaters and their victims. Somehow they were using our power in their ritual. They killed several people before out power started to run out. Then they put a spell on you and Ron that made it impossible for you to breathe. I screamed as I watched you die. They pulled you into the circle and dropped you at my feet. I was powerless to help you. I woke up screaming. It was so vivid. It didn't feel like a dream at all, it felt like it was really happening." 

Hermione and Ron looked at Harry and then at each other. 

"Wow," Ron finally said. 

"I'm sorry Harry," Hermione said softly. Harry walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, burying his face in her hair. 

"Hermione," Sirius said gently after a few minutes, "did you find anything useful at the library?" 

"Oh," she exclaimed, pulling away from Harry. "I found some interesting information." She walked over to one of the tables and set down the two books she had been carrying. She unrolled her scroll until she found the place that she wanted. "I wanted to find out about Lucius' suicide. I found out that it is virtually impossible for someone to commit suicide in Azkaban." 

Sirius nodded as she spoke. 

"There have been two people who have killed themselves while prisoners in Azkaban before. The first one was two hundred years ago. I couldn't find much information on him, but I did find several accounts that say that after his death he was found innocent of the crime he had been imprisoned for. The second occurrence was only seventy years ago. It was a woman named Mary Johnson and she was put in Azkaban for using AK on her two young children. She was there for seven years. Then she managed to kill herself. On the day that she died, her husband found a man about to kill the oldest and only remaining child. Less than a month later, Mary was found to have been innocent." 

"If the only people to ever manage it were innocent, how did Lucius manage it?" Ron asked. "I mean, we know very well that he was guilty!" 

"I wondered about that too, so I kept looking. I found out that there are about a dozen instances of prisoners being murdered in Azkaban. It seems that it is a much easier thing to kill someone else than to kill oneself while there. So it seems to me that it is far more likely that someone murdered Lucius Malfoy, probably at his request, than that he killed himself. It changes the power of the action a little bit." 

"I think that we would be able to find out more," Harry said, "if we had more information. I'll owl the ministry for more details." 

"Perhaps there's no power behind Lucius' act at all," Ron suggested. "I mean, it wasn't a righteous act, so it might mean nothing." 

A bell sounded, startling them all a little. Harry strode out of the library, his shoes clicking on the hard wood floor in the hallway. As soon as he had left, Ron turned to Hermione. 

"Am I just being ridiculous," he inquired, "or does he not seem any less upset?" 

"It's not just your imagination," Hermione responded. "Something is definitely eating at him. I just wish that I had some idea of what it was. I wouldn't think that just that dream would bother him as much as it seems to be." 

Harry reappeared, followed closely by Fred and George Weasley. Fred immediately knelt on one knee before Hermione. 

"Fair lady," he said grandly, "your beauty grows with each passing day. I am delighted to be in your illuminating presence again." He reached into the pocket of his robe and pulled out a wrapped chocolate. "Please accept this sweet as a token of my eternal admiration for you." 

Hermione looked at the proffered chocolate dubiously. 

"It's not going to do anything horrible like blow up or make me grow horns or anything, is it?" she asked. 

"Of course not," George said in a mock-hurt tone of voice. "Besides, Harry would personally feed us to Fluffy in tiny little pieces if we did anything horrible to you." 

Hermione looked from one twin to the other for a moment suspiciously before finally reaching for the chocolate. She carefully unwrapped and examined the candy. Finding nothing apparently wrong with it, she shrugged and popped it into her mouth. After waiting a moment and not finding anything unusual happening to her, they all resumed their conversation. 

"How is business going?" Sirius asked the twins. 

"Wonderfully," Fred said as he stood up. "Our shops are all doing extremely well and George and I have been having a bunch of great ideas lately." 

"And how are Angelina and Katie?" Hermione asked. 

"Both are doing well," George said. "In fact, we have some news!" 

"Yes!" Fred chimed in. "We're getting married!" 

"Married?" Ron choked out. 

"You and Angelina are getting married?" Hermione asked excitedly. 

"Not only them," George said with a wide grin on his face. "Katie and I are getting married too!" 

Ron's jaw dropped. 

"Congratulations to both of you," Sirius said happily to the two beaming twins. Hermione gave each on a warm hug as she murmured her congratulations as well. Before Harry could add his voice to the well-wishers, the bell chimed again and he went out to get the door. 

Within the hour, almost everyone who was supposed to be there had arrived. Only one person was missing. They all sat down around the pushed together tables in the library. Harry took a seat at the head of the table with Hermione on his left and Ron on his right. Everyone else took a place around the rest of the table. They all looked expectantly at Harry. 

"About a week ago, Minerva McGonagall informed Hermione and I that the Death Eaters were beginning to regroup. We went to Sirius to see if he had any more information, which he didn't at the time, and he said that he would find out if Fred and George had anything for us. Then we went back to Hogwarts until yesterday. On Wednesday I received word from the Ministry saying that Lucius Malfoy had apparently killed himself in Azkaban, leaving a note saying that he was dying in order to further his desire to see me destroyed. Yesterday, Ron got back from the continent and he, Hermione and I went and made sure that the rings were still locked away in Gringott's, which they were. So today, we have called a meeting of the Council in order to decide what should be done about it. I think…" 

Harry was interrupted by the bell chiming again. He scowled and scribbled a quick note on a scrap of paper, which he then promptly made disappear. 

"We can continue in a moment," Harry said. 

A few minutes later a tiny green light floated into the room, followed closely by Draco Malfoy. He was a mess. His blond hair stuck out every which way and he looked like he had gotten dressed too quickly in the dark because his robes were a mess. What made everyone smile and laugh, however, was the strawberry pink lipstick that covered his face. 

"Did we tear you away from something, Draco?" Remus Lupin asked. 

"Yeah, something tall and thin with blue eyes and flame red hair maybe?" chimed in Sirius. 

"Or maybe you were just attacked by a travelling make-up salesmen!" Fred suggested laughingly. 

"Draco," Hermione said, "come sit down." 

"But Hermione," Ron said playfully, "maybe he would rather go back to Ginny's instead!" 

"Maybe he just couldn't get a turn in the bathroom to clean up," George suggested. That made all three of the Weasleys laugh even harder. 

"Waiting for the bathroom forever," Ron exclaimed, "is one thing that I do not miss about living with Ginny!" 

Draco was blushing almost as pink a colour as the lipstick on his face. Hermione waved her hand and made a small silver hand mirror appear in his hand. He looked at himself and blushed even more. She made the mirror disappear again as he fished through the pockets of his robes. 

"I don't seem to have my wand," Draco said somewhat sheepishly. "I don't suppose that any of you could…" 

Hermione murmured something and waved her hand and suddenly the lipstick was gone and Draco's hair and robes were neat. He hurriedly sat in the seat next to her. 

"Now that we are all here," Harry said with a smirk, why don't Fred and George tell us what they've found out?" 

"Hermione," Claudette Perrott, a young woman who sat near Ron, exclaimed suddenly, "how did you ever do that with your hair? I've never seen anything like it!" 

"What?" Hermione asked as she made the small mirror reappear before her. She held up the mirror to see what Claudette was talking about. 

Harry stared at Hermione. He could have been knocked over with a feather. 

"Hermione," Ron said in awe, "you look like a fairy princess!" 

Hermione finally managed to catch a glimpse in her mirror of what they were talking about. Small blossoms and soft flower petals were falling gently from her hair. The affect was strikingly beautiful. 

"It worked!" Fred exclaimed excitedly. 

"Perfectly!" George agreed. 

"How did you do it?" Hermione asked them, not taking her eyes off of her mirror. 

"It was the chocolate," Fred said with a smile on his face. 

"We charmed it," George continued. "It was intended as a gift to you for all the help you've given us in the past. We've got a whole box of them for you. We'll send it over to you this week." 

"They are made just for you," Fred added. "We aren't making any for anyone else." 

"Thank you so much!" Hermione exclaimed. She got up from her seat and went to give each of the twins warm hugs. When she got back to the head of the table, Harry was standing up. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her deeply. 

"You are amazing," he whispered into her ear. 

Hermione smiled and kissed him again. He held her chair for her as she sat down and then took his own seat. 

"Alright," George said, "Fred and I had noticed increasing Death Eater activity, but by the time Professor McGonagall told Harry and Hermione about it we didn't have enough information on what they were doing to be particularly worried about it. We were keeping a very close eye on them. Thanks to Claudette's list of people, we were able to keep tabs on them even when they were doing normal everyday things. We both had to laugh because we were just talking about sending owls to Sirius and Harry telling them what little we knew when we received Sirius' owl." 

"Starting about Wednesday," Fred continued, "the Death Eaters began sending more owls back and forth and meeting in small groups. Thursday was a flourish of activity culminating in a large meeting in secret that night. At the meeting they discussed Lucius Malfoy's death and its consequences. They announced that Lucius' last wish was that Harry be killed. They recognized that killing Harry would be no easy task and they cut off the meeting so that everyone could go brainstorm ideas on how to kill Harry. We're keeping tabs on all of the known Death Eaters right now so that we will know about any ideas they come up with as soon as they come up with them." 

"Have they come up with anything that could be a real threat yet?" Hermione asked. 

"Not really," George answered. "Their ideas are all pretty ridiculous." 

"Here," Fred said as he passed a scroll to the head of the table. "We brought you a list of all of the ideas…" 

"And who thought them up…" 

"And when…" 

"Up until…" 

"This morning." 

"Forge and Gred," Ron said, "please don't do that. I already have a headache!" 

"Sorry Ron," George said apologetically. 

Harry looked over the list, but found very little to worry about. He looked up and found everyone looking at him expectantly. 

"Alright," he said to the group, "why doesn't everyone think about what our course of action should be and in the mean time, why don't we see how everyone is doing on their projects?" 

*Harry,* Hermione asked silently, *why are we not discussing this?* 

*Because I need a few minutes to think,* he replied, *and this was the only way that I could think of to do that without everyone staring at me.* 

*Alright, I'll buy that, but it's a pretty flimsy reason.* 

*I'll try to do better next time.* 

*Promise?* 

*Promise.* 

They started with Claudette. She was a young witch, only two years older than Harry, Hermione and Ron. She was particularly useful for gathering information because she could walk into a tavern and sit with, or without, anyone she wanted. She could easily lace drinks with Veritaserum and find out anything that she wanted to know. She was quick as a whip and had a photographic memory. Now she placed a scroll on the table before her and began talking to the group. 

"I have been gathering information on the Death Eaters. Last week I assumed that all of my information came from the Death Eaters during the rise and fall of You-Know-Who, but this week I started to hear about new Death Eater meetings and activities. I started working really hard to compile a list of whom the Death Eaters are. I got really lucky yesterday. A man came into the shop to buy new robes and I was helping him. He said enough for me to know that he had information, and considering that I had never seen him before or heard his name, I figured that it might very well be new information. I got him to take me to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink. I slipped Veritaserum into his drink and started asking questions. I found out a bunch of new names and then he started telling me about how he was the leader's right hand man. I tried to get him to tell me more about the leader, but he had apparently never seen the leader's face or been told his name. He said that they met in a different place every time and that they have decided that before they can continue working towards You-Know-Who's goals they must kill Harry, and that they would like to kill Ron and Hermione as well, but Harry was the first priority. They know that the three of you have an enormous amount of power, and that Harry has the most, but they can't figure out where that power could have come from. They also know that the three of you have more power together than the combined total when you are apart, but again, they don't know why. They haven't formed a coherent plan yet. That was more information than I ever got from anyone else. Here's the list of people that I have either talked to or been told about whom are Death Eaters. I am going to keep talking to people, and I have another date with the man I told you about later this week." 

Claudette passed a scroll of parchment down to the head of the table. As Harry, Ron and Hermione glanced at the list of people, Remus Lupin started speaking. 

"I haven't had as exciting a time as that," he began, "but then, I would be surprised if I had. I've been maintaining and building the Council library. We now have all of the reasonably easily found volumes that are likely to prove useful. I have been painstakingly locating older and more rare books that are more difficult to find. I have consulted with Harry and Sirius and we have decided to make this house, which Harry recently purchased, our new headquarters since we can no longer meet at Nicholas Flamel's. We also have the benefit of using this wonderful library. Once Hogwarts' Christmas holiday starts I will transport the books here and we will set up the library. This will give us more resources to draw from in the future." 

"We really appreciate you working on this, Remus," Hermione said. "The library will be so useful to have!" 

"You have to encourage her, don't you?" Ron said exasperatedly. "Now she has two libraries to disappear to!" 

They all laughed at that and Hermione blushed. 

"I guess that I can go next," Fred said. "As you all know, George and I are working on becoming better at deception." 

"I'm sure," Ron broke in, "that Mom would say that you couldn't get any better at it!" 

"And if you did," Harry added jokingly, "she would give up and become as crazy as a Coocoo bird!" 

Everyone laughed. 

"She will never give up on us," George assured them laughingly. 

"Please continue, Fred," Hermione said as the laughter began to die down. 

"Alright," Fred agreed. "Well, I've been working on building our spy network. I would like to keep it as small as possible in order to try and avoid the possibility of infiltration as much as possible. The longer we can go without them knowing about how our intelligence operation works, the better. I hired six spies. Five of them are keeping track of and finding out about two divisions of Death Eaters each and the sixth keeps track of just the division in Sweden and Norway. I've been keeping track of the division here in Britain myself. It has been working quite well. I receive owls from each of them every three days, and more when there is any abnormal activity or news that we need to be aware of. Ron checks up on them as he travels around the continent as well. So for the network is working quite well." 

"Do you trust your spies?" Harry inquired seriously. 

"Not as much as I would like, but they don't get much information and I'm working to improve the trust between us, so I'm not worried about it at the moment." 

Harry nodded. 

"I guess that means that is my turn," George said. "Well, I've come up with a number of different tools for spying and many ways to disguise them in order to make information gathering easier for Fred and his network. It's working marvellously." 

"Except that you still can't figure out what happened to my broom!" Fred exclaimed crossly. 

"That was not my fault! You weren't supposed to be back from lunch yet! It's not my fault that you walked in when you did! You distracted me!" 

"Wait," Ron said, "what happened?" 

"I was testing out a new charm to disguise objects on a quill," George explained, "when Fred came in carrying his broom and my focus shifted accidentally at just the wrong moment and I cast the charm on his broom instead. The charm wasn't working quite right yet and his broom vanished. I haven't been able to figure out where it went yet, or why the charm doesn't work." 

"And now some muggle kid in India probably has my broom!" Fred said, crossing his arms over his chest. 

Sirius started laughing and was shortly joined by everyone else. 

"Can you show me the charm?" Hermione asked George. 

"Of course," he replied, pulling his wand and a quill out of his pocket. He set the quill on the table and cast his charm on it. It promptly vanished and Hermione started laughing. 

"When did the broom disappear?" 

"Eight days ago." 

"Then you will find it six days from now right where you lost it! You sent it ahead in time two weeks!" 

George looked stunned. Everyone laughed. When the laughter finally died down, Sirius began talking. 

"I've been working on a counter-curse for Imperius, but I don't really have anything to report. It so far breaks Imperius on the spiders I've been testing it on, but it also kills them. I'll let you all know once I get it right." 

"On a similar note," Hermione piped up, "I have been working on the counter for the AK curse. It's not quite working yet either." 

"I've been working with various types of magical creatures," explained Christina O'Linskey, a middle-aged women who was the head of the Ministry Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. "I'm trying to get them to agree to ally themselves on our side. The most difficult so far have been the centaurs and the elves. The centaurs want to stay neutral and make talking to them difficult because they just keep telling me about Venus being bright or Jupiter being hidden. I'm still working on them. The elves are not much easier. One has to talk to them without scaring them, which is no easy trick (believe me). They want to be on our side, but they are afraid of that Death Eaters and their followers will hurt them. Again, I'm working on it. On the plus side, most of the dragons have agreed to work with us." 

"Good," Harry said. "We really appreciate the work that you are doing. If it comes to outright battles again these alliances will prove extremely important. I suppose that it's about my turn. I'm working on strategies and planning. I've decided to rework some of my ideas to adapt them to what is happening now. I'll let you know about it when the time is right." 

"Who's next?" Hermione asked. 

"I'll talk," said Draco. "I've been working on various potions. It's going well. I'm not going to go into all of them at the moment, but they are all coming along fine. I got some advice from Severus Snape and Nicholas Flamel, so I am now ahead of schedule." 

"Good," said Ron after a moment of silence. "I guess that just leaves me. I don't have much to report. I've been working with my brothers on the information network. It's coming along really well. I've also been working on strategies with Harry and Hermione. I guess that's about it." 

*Harry,* Hermione sent, *do you have any ideas yet?* 

*Maybe,* he replied. *I think that we need to set up a confrontation with them so that it is on our terms, I'm just not quite sure yet how exactly to go about doing that.* 

*Bring it up now. Perhaps someone in the group has an idea.* 

"I think," Harry said aloud, "that we should do some brainstorming now on some ideas. How are we going to deal with this Death Eater situation? I think that our best bet would be to set up a confrontation with them so that it's on our terms. So I guess that we need to figure out how to do that." 

"I think Harry's right," Ron said thoughtfully. "If we arrange things on our terms then we can keep some surprise them. The more secrets that we have up our sleeve, the better." 

"Then we need to set up a situation where we know that they will show up," Lupin stated. "We know that they want Harry, so we need a situation where he is very visible as bait." 

"My guess," Sirius said, "is that they are less likely to show up if they know that they will have to contest with all three of you together. Somehow we need to make them think that one of you won't be there." 

"I can easily come up with a reason to run off to the continent," Ron suggested. "As long as they buy it, that should work." 

"We can send someone else in your place," Hermione said. "We can make them appear to be you with a Polyjuice Potion and then send them away. We can also disguise you so that they don't catch on." 

"Alright," Harry said calmly. "We've figured out how to make us appear weaker, but what is the scenario going to be? And how do we make sure that they know about it?" 

"A party!" Hermione exclaimed. "We need to throw a party or a ball or something! That way it will be well known, particularly if Harry is the host!" 

"We can make it a Christmas party," Christina suggested. "That will ensure that they won't seem the least bit suspicious. 

"I think that we should leave the party planning up to Hermione," Claudette suggested. "Any of us will help with anything, but she should organize it." 

"I can do that," Hermione agreed. "We can hold another meeting as the time draws nearer to finalize everything." 

"Great," Harry said. "Is there any other business or anything we need to discuss?" 

No one had anything else, so they decided to adjourn. Everyone started apparating out. Hermione walked over to Ron. 

"Ron, Harry and I are going to stay here for tonight and were wondering if you would like to stay around here for a while. We could have some dinner and get caught up." 

"Um, sure," he agreed. 

"Great!" 

Once everyone had left, Harry, Ron and Hermione went to the kitchen for some supper. As they cooked they talked over what they had all been up to for the past several months and such. The conversation continued through the meal and then they sat by the fireplace in one of the sitting rooms and talked late into the night. It got so late that Harry invited Ron to use one of the extra bedrooms for the night. Finally they retired to bed, setting Ron up in the room across the hall from Harry and Hermione's. 

~ 

Several hours later Harry was suddenly awakened by Hermione screaming. He fumbled for his wand as she started sobbing. 

"Mione," Harry asked alarmed, "what's wrong?" 

She didn't answer him. 

"Lumos," Harry said. The room filled with light. Hermione was sitting up with her head buried in her hands sobbing. Suddenly there was a pounding on the door. 

"Harry," Ron called from the hallway, "what's wrong?" 

"Hermione, what's wrong?" Harry asked again, and again she made no response. "Can Ron come in?" Still nothing. Harry was really worried. He'd never seen Hermione like this before. He wondered what could have possibly upset her so much. 

"Harry?" Ron shouted, still pounding on the door. 

"Come on in, Ron," Harry called, never taking his eyes off Hermione. As Ron opened the door, Harry reached out a hand and touched Hermione's shoulder. It was as if his touch burned her, she shrank away so sharply. Harry stared at her in shock. She had never shrunk from his touch before, even when she hadn't been speaking to him after a fight when they were students, she hadn't pulled away from him like that. 

"Harry, what happened?" Ron asked quietly. 

"I don't know," he answered truthfully. "She just woke up screaming, as far as I can tell. And she just flinched and jerked away at my touch." 

Ron walked around to Hermione's side of the bed and sat on the edge of it, being careful not to touch her. She didn't even seem to notice him. 

*Hermione,* he sent gently, *what happened?* 

Hermione sobbed even harder and brought her knees up to her chest. Harry looked at her helplessly, close to tears himself. 

*Oh Ron!* Hermione cried in Ron's head. *I had the most horrible nightmare! It was so real!* 

*Do you want to tell us about it, or show it to us?* 

*I'll show it to you, but I'm not sure if telling Harry about it is such a good idea.* 

*Alright, but what are you going to tell Harry?* 

*I suppose that I have to tell him something.* 

*Look at him. Don't you think that he deserves the truth?* 

*I know, but he'll overreact!* 

*Just keep reminding him to keep things in perspective, after all, it was just a dream.* 

*We both know that won't work, dreams can be manipulated as easily as memories!* 

*Try telling him. He'll know if you lie to him and he'll be hurt if you tell him nothing.* 

Hermione took a deep breath, brushed the tears out of her eyes and looked at Harry. He was watching her with a worried expression and undisguised tears in his eyes. 

*Harry,* Hermione sent to him, *I'm going to show you and Ron my nightmare, but you must promise not to overreact. Remember, it is just a dream.* 

*I promise,* Harry replied. 

Hermione took another deep breath before closing her eyes and sending out her thoughts to Harry and Ron. 

*Close your eyes,* she commanded, *that will make this easier for me.* Then she began projecting her dream to them. 

~~~

_Harry and Ron found themselves in a dark room. The walls were made of stone and the only light came from outside of the tiny window in the closed door. There were no windows to the outside. A crumpled form lay on the floor in the torn remains of blue robes. Her long brown hair flowed onto the floor around her, but her face was hidden from them. I didn't matter, Harry would have known her anywhere. The only piece of furniture in the room was a small, wooden bed in the corner with dirty sheets on it. _

Suddenly the door burst open and a man in Death Eater robes walked in. He pushed back his hood and Harry and Ron gasped. It was no ordinary Death Eater. It was Salazar Slytherin. 

"Good evening, Princess," he said in his silky-smooth voice. 

Hermione raised her head from the floor and stared at him. Her face was tear-streaked and her eyes flashed with fire. 

"I am not your princess!" 

Salazar smiled. 

"Of course you are! My heir brought me back and you were returned to me to be my princess. You resisted me then and you resist me now, but in the end you will be mine, Rowena." 

"I am not Rowena! If I were her, don't you think that I would have been sorted into her house?" 

"I would have predicted it, but the sorting hat isn't infallible." 

"I am not your princess! And it doesn't sound like Rowena Ravenclaw was either!" 

"I WILL make you my princess!" He pointed his wand at the bed. Hermione was suddenly lying on her back on it. "I'll do to you now what I was never able to do then!" 

He crossed the room to the bed. 

"I am not your princess, and I am certainly not going to be your sex slave!" Salazar slapped her hard across the face. Hermione struggled to get up but found that she was magically bound to the bed. 

"You'll stay right there, Princess, until I'm ready to let you move." 

Then Salazar proceeded to rape Hermione. Ron had to hold Harry back. 

"You can't help her," he reminded Harry. 

When he had finished Salazar leaned down to Hermione's ear. 

"Now you are mine for always," he said with a sneer. "And your precious Godric, or whatever he's called now, can't save you!" 

And he laughed. It was a cold, bone-chilling sound. 

~~~

"And that's when I woke up," Hermione said softly, hugging her knees tightly. 

Ron and Harry opened their eyes and stared at her. Harry had tears running down his cheek. Hermione couldn't look at them, so she looked out the window at the night sky instead. 

"That dream felt so real," she whispered. "I almost feel bruised where he touched me." 

"Hermione," Harry said quietly, "you probably are." 

"What?" she asked sharply, turning to look at him. 

He held out his hand and her silver hand mirror floated across the room to him. He offered it to her. She accepted it with a confused expression. Hermione held the mirror up and looked into it. The colour drained out of her face. 

Except for the angry red finger marks that streaked across her left cheek. 

  
  
Author's note: Thanks for hanging in there through that chapter! I would love feedback, so write reviews for me! Just to let you know, next chapter you'll get to see what's going on in Ron's head and some of the party preparations! Thanks for reading! 


	4. More Information

Title: The Power of Three   
Author: Rosepixie   
Author Email: krgiacomini@students.wisc.edu   
Category: Angst/Darkfic, Romance   
Keywords: Hermione, Harry, H/Hr, Post-Hogwarts, Death Eaters   
Rating: R   
Spoilers: The first four books   
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.   
Author's Note: I really need reviews on this, since it's my first fic. Thanks! 

Chapter Four 

Harry and Hermione hurried back to Hogwarts early the next morning. They rushed up the stairs to the hospital wing. Poppy listened to Hermione explain what had happened before she shooed Harry away so that she could examine Hermione. He decided to go down to breakfast. The great hall was still fairly empty with just a few students scattered about. Tiny Professor Flitwick sat by himself at the head table reading intently. Harry took his seat and food appeared on his plate. He didn't really feel hungry though, so he just sat pushing his food around his plate absently. As students began to trickle in rumours began to spread like wildfire. Hermione didn't show up for breakfast at all and Harry went off to teach his first class nervously. 

Hermione arrived in Greenhouse Two several minutes late for class, which startled her second year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs (Hermione was never late), but what surprised them even more was that she was wearing Muggle makeup! There was, of course, witch makeup, but they had never bothered to develop concealers since charms or potions were nearly always used for that purpose. None of the charms had worked to remove the marks on Hermione's face, however, so she had dug out a makeup kit that her grandmother had given her once and used it for only the second time in her life. Poppy had been extremely distraught when nothing worked to remove the slap mark on her face and the purple bruises and scratches that had mysteriously appeared on her body after the dream. Hermione dreaded what Harry would do when he found out that the bruises couldn't be removed. 

Her students stared at her in disbelief as she stood before them. A girl's hand shot up. 

"Yes, Gwendolyn?" Hermione asked, hoping that she wouldn't ask about the makeup but knowing that she would. 

"Why are you wearing makeup?" the girl asked. 

"I've been doing some work where I needed to look like a Muggle. Don't ask what it is though because I can't tell you anything about it." 

Whispering started immediately. 

"Alright," Hermione said, raising her voice. "You can speculate while you work. Today you are going to be working with Silvia Divinorum. They need to be handled carefully because they are rare and delicate plants. We need to carefully harvest the leaves. Leave at least ten leaves on each plant. This is how you remove the leaves," she demonstrated. "Now split into groups of three. Each group can take one tray. If there are any problems, I will rearrange the groups, so work with people with whom you aren't likely to get into trouble. If you are having any trouble with your plant, call me over. One more thing, it's very important that you don't remove any of the blossoms. If you do, call me over immediately. Alright, you may begin." 

Hermione walked around watching them, but her mind kept wandering back to the dream. What had it meant? Was it a premonition? Had it really happened? She certainly had all the bruises, marks and sore spots to suggest that it had. Was someone manipulating her dreams? It seemed like that must be the case, but she couldn't imagine who had the power to do that at the moment. And even more worrisome was the fact that Poppy had been able to do nothing about any of the bruises or marks. Normally those kinds of things were quite easy to remove. What did it mean? What if it happened again and she died in the dream? Would she really die? And Harry was going to be extremely upset. She knew that he was already more upset than he would tell her. What would he do now? 

Someone suddenly screamed. Hermione whirled around and inwardly groaned at the sight before her. At the last tray a Hufflepuff boy was standing covered in white powdering pollen with a silly grin plastered across his face. Two other students were pressed against the wall staring at the boy fearfully. She made her way over to the boy covered in pollen. A purplish blossom lay at his feet. 

"Alright," Hermione said, raising her voice again so that the students would all pay attention, "I want you to put all of your baskets down and go back to your common rooms. If you got any pollen on you or are feeling light-headed or otherwise strangely dreamy, come and see me right away." 

The students all put their baskets down and left chattering loudly. Five students remained, the boy covered in pollen, the two others who had been working at his tray, and two of the students from the tray next to them. Hermione surveyed them, and then waved her had and murmured something. The pollen all disappeared. 

"Now you all need to come with me to the hospital wing." 

"But Professor Granger," said a Ravenclaw boy nervously, "we can't be late for our next lesson!" 

"It will only take a few minutes," Hermione assured him. "You won't be late." 

Hermione took the hand of the boy who had been covered in pollen and began walking towards the castle. The boy walked next to her as if in a trance while the other four students followed cautiously. She led them through the castle corridors to the hospital wing. On the way she passed by the open door to Harry's classroom. He saw her and silently called out to her. 

*Hermione, where are you going?* 

*The hospital wing. We had a bit of an accident in Herbology. I'll tell you about it later.* 

Hermione pushed the door open and found Poppy bustling about cleaning up. 

"Poppy, I have some students her who were exposed to some Salvia Divinorum pollen." 

"At least that is easily remedied," Poppy replied shaking her head as she looked that the boy whose hand Hermione was holding. 

"I'll leave them in your capable hands then," Hermione said sweetly. "I'll see you later." 

"Of course. Have a good day, Hermione." 

"You too." 

Hermione left the hospital wing and made her way back to Greenhouse Two to gather up all of the baskets. She didn't want to walk past Harry's classroom again, so she quietly slipped into one of the secret passages in the castle. When she got to the greenhouse, she looked around. At least there wasn't much of a mess to clean up. She reached down to get the baskets nearest her and gasped as pain shot up her sore thighs. She sat down on the ground and let tears fall down her cheeks and spill onto the ground. 

Harry's first class that morning was the sixth year Griffindors. He was discussing how to deal with poltergeists with them, but his mind was having trouble staying on topic. It kept wondering down towards his best friend, the woman who had won the heart of the Boy Who Lived. He was itching to go and find her. She hadn't shown up for breakfast and he wanted to know why. He knew that Poppy could deal with bruises easily and quickly, so he wanted to know what had made it take so long. His eyes kept returning to the window, which overlooked the greenhouses. He didn't know if she was down there or not, but he liked that he could see them from his window. 

"Professor Potter," a girl asked, bringing him back from the wandering thoughts in his head, "what happens if one does not construct a strong enough rete?" 

"Then the poltergeist will not be bound," Harry replied, turning back to his class. "It's very important to make sure that he is bound because they can be so dangerous." 

"Where are they found normally?" 

"As I said, they like old places. There are many of them found in Britain and the rest of Europe, but not so many in the United States. Castles are particular favourites of theirs." 

"Are we going to try binding a poltergeist at some point?" another boy inquired. 

"I hope so. I've asked for permission for us to practice on Peeves. He's not terribly dangerous, but he's good for practice." 

Harry's heart leapt into his throat when he saw Hermione walk by his door quickly with a group of students. He asked her where she was going and she had assured him that it was just a Herbology accident. It almost seemed like she had been trying to hide her face from him, but he thought that he must have imagined it. She had just been concerned about her students, right? Of course she was. She wasn't avoiding him. He sighed and turned back to his students. 

As his class filed out the door Harry let his mind wander back to Hermione and her dream. The whole thing made him extremely angry. He was determined to find out who exactly was manipulating Hermione's dreams and how they were harming her. He was also forming a plan for protecting her against it happening again, and perhaps finding out more about her attacker at the same time. Harry was not a man who got angry easily. Certain things, however, could easily trigger his anger. An attack on Hermione was one of those triggers. He knew that his anger had to be focused before it could be useful, otherwise it would hinder him. 

After taking a few moments to himself, Harry got up and went to the library. He wound his way through the shelves to the restricted section in the back. He had spent enough time looking through the rows of books his last few years of being a student that he could go exactly to the section he wanted. He pulled a large, dusty book off the shelf and looked through it to make sure that it was the one he wanted, then he carried it back out into the main part of the library. He sat down at an empty table and began looking through the book. 

~ 

Ron sat in his office at the main Weasley's Wizard Wheezes office in Diagon Alley trying to read through a report, but sleep was fighting hard to cover his eyes. He had been up extremely late trying to reassure Harry and Hermione that they could figure out something to do about the dreams. The trouble was that he wasn't convinced of that himself. They had done a lot of research on dreams when Voldemort had been manipulating Harry's dreams through their sixth and seventh years at Hogwarts and come up with very little. It was a fairly easy matter to manipulate dreams if you had enough power and knew what you were doing; in fact it was similar to obliviating memories. The problem was, that there was no really effective way of countering it. The best that they had been able to do was to have someone else (Ron, Hermione, Sirius, or Dumbledore) also enter Harry's dreams each night to help him fight back. It was hardly an ideal situation when Voldemort could control the dream so that Harry was without his magical powers. Even Dumbledore had some trouble fighting Voldemort and dozens of his Death Eaters in the dream environment he had created. It was hard to fight successfully when reality was obeying Voldemort's rules. They could easily do the same for Hermione. What worried Ron the most was the way Hermione's dream had physically hurt her in real life. He couldn't remember ever reading anything that talked about that happening, or even being possible, much less how to counter it. He knew that Harry would stop at nothing to find a solution. What he worried about was what would happen if there weren't one. 

Ron thought about his two best friends. They seemed so happy together. He had suspected for a long time that they would end up together, but that didn't make it any easier for him. Ron didn't begrudge his friends their happiness, but he was terribly envious. He had done a bit of dating, but none of the women had ever worked out. He had been on many a first date, but only a handful of second dates and once had he had more dates than that with someone. The woman that he had been on the most dates with was Lavender Brown. He had an odd relationship with her. They dated once or twice each time he was back in Britain, but it had never been serious. They just enjoyed each other's company. Part of the reason that he had so much trouble dating was that he was Ron Weasley. Everyone knew his name. Everyone knew that he was one of the most powerful wizards in the world. It made dating very difficult because most women only wanted to date him because he was famous, none of them ever saw past that. That's why it was easy to date Lavender, she saw him as himself because she had known him before he had gotten the power and helped to defeat Voldemort. Part of him wanted to hate Harry and Hermione for the love and happiness that they had found, but he knew that he could never do it. Their friendship had been through far too much to fall apart so easily. And he was happy for them. God knows that they deserved a little happiness after everything that they had gone through, especially Harry. During their last confrontation with Voldemort, Harry and literally walked into hell and back. He had been changed forever that night, and try as he might, Ron and Hermione could never really understand what Harry had gone through. Now he seemed better, more like old self again, and Ron didn't doubt that Hermione had played a big part in that. 

A knock on the door started Ron out of his musings and back to his office and the unread report on the desk before him. 

"Come in!" he called. 

The door opened and Fred and George stuck their heads into the room. 

"Hey Ron," Fred said as he bounded into the room. "What are you doing tonight?" 

"Sorry, Fred," Ron said with a half-smile, "but you just aren't my type." 

"Oh," Fred said, looking crestfallen, "and I so had my heart set on it!" 

"I'd run for it Ron," George said with a bemused tone of voice, "he's playing matchmaker again." 

Ron groaned. 

"No, I'm sorry Fred, but I am not going to trust you setting me up on a blind date ever again!" 

"Oh, come on!" Fred pleaded. "Last time wasn't so bad!" 

"Yes it was!" 

"Hey, Denise was a perfectly sweet, beautiful girl!" 

"I'm not disputing that she was sweet or that she was beautiful, it's just that she had nothing else to offer!" 

"There was nothing wrong with her." 

"No, as long as you had no interest in conversation she was perfect! Fred, her working brain cells could have taken refuge in the shadow of a chick-pea!" 

George started laughing. 

"Fred, I appreciate that you want to find me a girl, but please stop! I can't go on a date tonight anyway." 

"Why not?" Fred asked curiously. 

"You are as bad as Parvati, Fred!" 

This made George laugh even harder. 

"But if you must know," Ron continued, "I have to go up to Hogwarts." 

"Oh," Fred said, sounding slightly disappointed that Ron's reason for not going on a date was not juicier. 

"Come on Fred," George said, still stifling laughter, "Let's leave Ron alone. Something is obviously bothering him and I think that we should give him some time alone. Ron, if you need anything we can help with, or even just someone to talk to, come find us. We'll be around." 

"Thanks, George," Ron said as they left. 

Once the door had clicked shut behind them Ron stood up and walked over to look out of the window. He could see Diagon Alley was crowded. Below his window four little boys were looking through a shopping bag excitedly. A woman holding a baby and several parcels walked up them. One of the boys showed her something from the bag and a scowl crossed her face. She began scolding them and snatched the bag away, but Ron saw one of the boys slip something into his pockets. Ron laughed. He wondered how often similar scenes took place in from of the shop. It reminded him of home and how his mother used to be horribly upset with Fred and George every time they played jokes on people. Sometimes he really missed those people. 

With a sigh Ron turned back to his desk and the unread report. 

~ 

When Hermione's second class left to return to the building for lunch she hurriedly cleaned up the greenhouse and hurried into the castle. She made her way through the corridors to the staff room. Professor Binns was floating near one of the windows looking outside. She walked up to him and he turned to look at her. 

"Good afternoon," he said with a nod. 

"Good afternoon, Professor Binns," she replied respectfully. She had a very different relationship with the other professors than she had with Professor Binns. The others treated her as an equal among them, but Professor Binns didn't treat her any differently than he had when she was a student (except that he had learned her name now). "May I ask you a question?" 

"Of course." 

He floated over and hovered above the seat of one of the chairs near the fire. Hermione took the other seat. 

"I'm wondering about the nature of the relationships among the founders." 

Professor Binns frowned. 

"Well, Helga Hufflepuff was the only one who never became involved with any of the others. We know that Rowena Ravenclaw and Godric Griffindor were married. Before they were married there was some kind of a break between Griffindor and Slythrin over Ravenclaw. The story, which remains unconfirmed, says that Slythrin greatly desired Ravenclaw, but she did not return it and so she kept turning him down. He flew into a rage and raped Ravenclaw. Afterwards, Griffindor became enraged and told Slythrin to leave. Slythrin and been planning on leaving anyway and finally did so. Ravenclaw married Griffindor shortly after and had several children together. What we can confirm is simply that Ravenclaw and Griffindor were really married and had several children, but then the rest of it is unconfirmed." 

"Thank you, Professor Binns," Hermione said respectfully. "I must go and get some lunch." 

"Have a good afternoon." 

"Thank you." 

Hermione walked down to the kitchens. The house elves gave her some of the wonderful food that they had made for lunch. She took it back to her office and ate as she contemplated the story that Professor Binns had told her. What if she really did have some connection to Rowena Ravenclaw? What if Salizar Slythrin really had come back to relive the past? What if he was trying to rewrite the story with a different ending? They had known that Voldemort had wanted to bring back Slythrin, but they had never found any evidence that he had succeeded. 

The story was a strange one. There were so many questions that came out of it. Why had Slythrin been able to overpower Ravenclaw? There was no indication that he had any more power than her. Had Godric and Rowena actually been in a relationship before Slythrin raped her or did that come later? Hermione wanted to find out as much as possible about Griffindor and Ravenclaw and their children. She wondered if somehow she was descended from them even though she was muggle-born. She also wondered if she simply looked very much like Rowena and was not related to her at all. Perhaps there was a painting of her somewhere. Of the four founders she had only ever seen a painting of one of them. There was a painting of Salizar Slythrin hanging in the Slythrin common room that she had seen a couple of times as a student. 

Hermione pulled a scroll of parchment and a quill out of her desk and began to write a letter. She sent it off with an owl from the owlry before going to teach her next class. 

~ 

Harry soon became so involved in the book that he was reading that he lost track of time. When he finally looked up the library was almost empty. It must be lunchtime. He shut the book and carried it back to his office, then headed off to lunch. As he walked into the Great Hall he saw immediately that Hermione wasn't there. He wondered where she was. Harry ate as quickly as he could and went to find her, but he only had a few minutes before he had to teach another class. He checked her office, but she wasn't there. He had to use a couple of secret passages to get to his class on time. 

"Good afternoon," he murmured as he hurried into his classroom. He had the fourth year Ravenclaws. They waited expectantly for him to begin lecturing. He started by taking a jar of spiders out of his desk. They reminded him of Ron and he smiled a little bit. 

"Today we are going to begin studying the Unforgivable Curses," Harry began, sitting on the front of his desk. "Can someone tell me what they are?" 

Only a few hands were raised. He pointed to a boy in the front row. 

"The Crutiatus curse," the boy said tentatively. 

"Very good. We can start with the Crutiatus. Alright, the Crutiatus was designed to allow the caster to torture the victim without actually having to touch him. The victim is full of intense physical pain that does not let up until the caster wishes it to. Are there any questions so far?" 

No one raised their hand or spoke. 

"I'm going to cast the Crutiatus on a spider so that you can see what it looks like. Is there anyone who doesn't want to see this demonstration?" 

A few people raised their hands. 

"Very well. You may leave the classroom, but come and see me before the end of the day so that I can give you a short extra assignment." 

Only one girl got up and left the room. 

Harry engorged one of the spiders and cast the Crutiatus on it. He let it writhe around on his desk for a minute or so and then removed the curse, shrunk the spider to it normal size and dropped it back into the jar. 

"Are there any questions at this point?" 

"Why would anyone want to cast that on a person, Professor Potter?" a boy asked. 

Harry sighed. 

"That's a difficult question. This curse is used by dark wizards to torture people that they don't like or see as dangerous to their cause. It has driven many wizards and witches crazy. Dark wizards, particularly Voldemort," (the students all gasped at the name and many started to look around fearfully) "like to use it to make sure that people don't forget how powerful they are." 

A girl raised her hand and Harry nodded at her to speak. 

"Do you know anyone who has had the Crutiatus curse cast on them?" 

Harry hesitated as painful memories began to wash over him. 

"Yes," he finally said quietly. "I do. I had a friend whose parents had been driven crazy because of it. When we were fighting Voldemort" (the class reacted again, but Harry was too busy staring at his hands to notice) "he cast the curse on both Hermione Granger and I." 

Memories swirled around him as he remembered that horrible event. His class sat staring at him in surprise. When he finally looked up at them, he saw their faces full of shocked sympathy. One girl near the back even had tears in her eyes. Harry took a deep breath and spoke again. 

"Are there any more questions?" 

One boy nervously raised his hand. 

"Go ahead," Harry urged. 

"What… what did it feel like?" 

"It's difficult to accurately describe. Every part of my body felt like every painful thing that could be done to me was being done. My scar was burning so badly that I couldn't even think." 

"How did you make it stop?" a boy asked. 

"I didn't. The first time he just stopped it when he felt like it. The second time Ron Weasley was able to make Voldemort stop. I was pretty powerless because I was in so much pain. Are there any more questions?" 

No one spoke or raised their hand, so Harry decided to move on. 

"Alright, now that you know what it is, let's go on to what you can do about it. We have developed a counter to the Crutiatus curse. I'm going to teach it to you, but you probably don't have enough power to make it work on humans." He took a spider out of the jar and engorged it. "The nice thing about this counter curse is that anyone can perform it, not just the victim. So today I'm going to bring in someone to help me, since the person who casts it can't really be the one who counters it. Come on in Draco!" 

Draco Malfoy came into the classroom and looked around. He smiled as he saw the tanks and cages holding magical creatures that lined the walls. 

"I see you're taking cues from Lupin as well as Moody, Potter," he said as he leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms. 

Harry smiled. 

"Two great teachers," he replied. Then he turned back to his class. "This is Draco Malfoy. He's going to help me demonstrate the counter curse." 

A girl's hand went up. 

"Yes, Margot?" 

"Weren't you enemies when you were at Hogwarts?" 

Harry smiled and glanced at Draco, who was looking embarrassed. 

"We greatly disliked each other for the first few years, but by the end of our sixth year we had become allies. He played an important role in defeating Voldemort. Without Draco we may not have managed it, or I might have succeeded, but died." 

"How _did_ you defeat Voldemort, Professor?" a girl asked. 

Harry hesitated to answer. He knew that he couldn't tell his students what had really happened. Only four other people in the world knew what happened that night, and none of them knew everything he had gone through. He had never been able to talk about it, but even if he could he wouldn't want the people he loved and who loved him to know everything he had seen and experienced. 

"I'm sorry," he apologized to his students, "but I don't really want to discuss it." 

"Why not?" another student asked. 

"Because it wasn't a very pleasant experience for any of us," Draco said quietly. "It was worse for Harry than any of the rest of us. He's never told any of us everything that happened." 

None of the students said anything. Some of them stared at Harry or Draco, while others looked at the floor. 

"Why don't we start with today's lesson?" Draco asked. 

"Yes," Harry agreed. He made sure that everyone could clearly see the engorged spider on his desk. "Draco will cast the curse and I will perform the counter curse. Pay close attention to what I do because you will all be trying it later." 

Harry looked at Draco and nodded. Draco took a deep breath and raised his wand. 

"Crutio," he said forcefully. Draco stood straight and tall as he held the curse on the spider. Only Harry saw the tightening around Draco's eyes and the stiffening of his jaw. 

"Proteget," Harry said with a flourish of his wand. The engorged spider suddenly stopped twitching in pain. "That was the counter curse. I'm going to show it to you once more and then I'll start teaching it to you." 

Draco raised his wand and cast the curse again. 

"Proteget… ah… ah…" 

Harry's voice trailed off and he collapsed to the floor. Draco dropped to his knees next to Harry, his face white as a sheet. Some of the students screamed or rushed forward. The room became extremely loud suddenly. 

"Everyone shut up!" Draco suddenly shouted. The students went quiet, staring at him. He began to point to students and shout orders. "You run and get Madam Pomfrey, you get Professor McGonegall." He scribbled a quick note and handed it to another student. "Take this to Professor Granger as quickly as possible. Don't tell her anything, just give her the note." Draco dropped to his knees beside Harry again. "Come on Harry," he whispered, "wake up." 

The room was silent. Almost no one moved for several long minutes. Suddenly Professor McGonegall rushed into the room. 

"Draco, what happened?" she demanded. 

"I don't know," he replied quietly. 

McGonegall turned to the students. 

"I want you to go to your common room and stay there until either Professor Flitwick or I come and say that you can do otherwise." 

"Yes, Professor McGonegall," the students muttered as they left the room. 

Poppy Pomfrey rushed into the room. She saw Harry on the floor and went to him immediately. 

"Now Draco, tell me exactly what happened," McGonegall instructed. Draco moved aside to give Poppy some room and told McGonegall what had happened. 

Just as he finished Hermione showed up. She stepped into the room and stopped as though puzzling over something. After a minute she slowly walked over to where Draco and McGonegall stood. She didn't speak right away, and both Draco and Professor McGonegall recognized the look on her face to well to risk braking her concentration by saying anything. 

"Draco," Hermione finally said, "Tell me everything that happened, everything you felt, everything you can think of. Slowly." 

"Well, Harry called me into the room and I was amused at the resemblance it bears to when Lupin taught in it. Someone asked about how Harry and I disliked each other in school and Harry assured them that it wasn't the case anymore. Then they asked about how we defeated Voldemort. He said that he didn't want to discuss it and when they asked why, I said it was because it had been such a painful experience. It was kind of awkward for a minute so I suggested that we start the lesson. Harry agreed. I cast the Crutiatus curse on that spider, which was hard for me because it reminded me of what my father had thought that I was and wanted me to be. Harry cast the counter and then he told the students that he was going to show it to them once more and then he would start teaching it to them. So I cast the curse again and again he countered it, but just after he said 'proteget' he said 'ah' a couple of times and collapsed. I was scared and worried. I sent three students out for you two and Madam Pomfrey and waited." 

"Professor McGonegall," Hermione said as she summoned a quill and some parchment from the desk and the quill began writing on a desk near them, "who is free right now?" 

"Professor Trelawny and Professor Sinistra." 

Hermione waved her hand and the note that had just been scribbled disappeared. 

"There was a charm performed in this room," Hermione said as the quill went on to another note. "Either the charm was on the room itself, or something still in it, and it is still in effect or… damn, I wish that Ron were here." 

"Do you know what kind of charm it was?" Draco inquired. 

"It feels kind of like a memory charm. Not a charm to forget something, but a charm to remember something, or maybe see something. A powerful one." 

"How do you know that?" Professor McGonegall asked in surprise. 

"It's a power that I learned while fighting Voldemort. Spells leave a trace, like a scent. I can sense it. There's a flavour to each one, and there are similarities to others of the same kind. For example all spells that deal with memory have a similar flavour. So I can walk into a room and tell you about some of the spells that have recently been performed there. Just please don't make it known that I can do this." 

"Of course, dear. That is a remarkable talent. It's a wonder that you can identify anything specific around here!" 

"It's no worse than walking into a kitchen where a grand supper is being prepared. I've learned to ignore many scents around here, but some stand out, and I can identify even the ones I'm used to when it's necessary." 

"I never thought about spells have scents before!" 

"Few people have, it seems. But back to the matter at hand, there is still a memory charm in effect here." 

"Could that have been what happened to Harry? He remembered something and it affected him?" 

"It's possible, but I wish that I knew what memory had so much impact on him then." 

Professor Sinistra came into the room with three owls. 

"Here you are Hermione," she said. "I want to know what's going on, but I've got a class starting in ten minutes." 

"Thanks," Hermione replied as she tied notes to the owl's legs. "Professor McGonegall, I have a class too. Could you tell them to go to their common rooms or something? I want to see what I can find out about what happened to Harry." 

"Of course. I have to talk to Ravenclaws who were here when it happened as well." 

Professor McGonegall left the room, shutting the door behind her. Hermione finished tying the last letter to the owls and sent them off. Then she turned towards Harry. Madam Pomfrey was still fussing over him. 

"Poppy," Hermione said quietly, "why don't you go back to the hospital wing now?" 

"He hasn't come to yet," Poppy protested. "I want to check him when he does." 

"I know. I'll bring him to the hospital wing when I'm done." 

"Very well." 

When Poppy had left and shut the door behind her Hermione sagged a bit. The air of control she had shown since she walked into the room melted away and left her looking tired and upset. 

"Are you alright Hermione?" Draco asked seriously as he walked over to her. 

"It's been a very long, very bad day," she replied. 

"What's with the makeup?" 

Hermione waved her hand past her face and the makeup disappeared. The clear slap marks on her face stood out sharply. Draco's jaw fell open. 

"What happened?" 

"It's a long story. First let's deal with Harry, then I'll tell you about it." 

"You're going into his head, aren't you?" 

"If that's what you want to call it. You know what to do, don't you?" 

"Yes, Ron told me." 

"I thought he might have. Alright, let's do this." 

After crossing over and magically locking the door, Hermione sat on the floor next to Harry and took his hand. Draco sat next to her. Hermione closed her eyes and focused on Harry. Draco caught her as she sagged, being careful to make sure that she never broke physical contact with Harry. Then he sat and waited for one or both of them to wake up. 

~~~

Hermione was suddenly jerked forward through a bright light and found herself standing on top of one of the Hogwarts towers. A man was standing there overlooking the Forbidden Forest. He was tall and muscular with a messy mop of red hair. Light summer robes of emerald green fell from his shoulders and danced around his ankles in the breeze. A sword encrusted with rubies was in his right hand. It had been almost two years since she had seen that sword, and few good memories were connected with it. She began to wonder what exactly she was seeing when after several minutes the man still hadn't moved. She looked down at the landscape. Hermione realized that she must be atop the staff tower, though she had never been there before. All she saw was the Forbidden Forest and some of the grounds on one side of it. No one was there. Something about it seemed odd to her. Then she realized that Hagrid's hut was missing. She looked and saw that her greenhouses were gone too. 

_I wonder when this happened?_ she thought. _It's certainly not from Harry's lifetime. Why would someone want him to see this? What am I missing here?_

Still the man didn't move. With frustration Hermione searched the landscape again for a clue. She saw nothing. As she looked back up at him the man ran a hand through his hair and sighed. A smile spread across his face, although its appearance failed to make his look any less troubled. Hermione looked back down and saw that two women had appeared walking near the edge of the forest. One was blond and dressed in red while her companion was brunette and wore blue. Hermione couldn't make out anything else about them. 

With a sigh the man turned around and went inside. As she watched him go, Hermione felt herself being lurched forward through the light again. 

~~~

Draco sat on the floor of Harry's classroom cradling Hermione in his lap. He hoped that she was having some luck finding out what had happened to Harry. He was worried about his friends, and he wasn't the only one. He had spoken to Ginny Weasley, his girlfriend, before he left for Hogwarts that morning and she had said that her brother George had also expressed some concern. This was not the first time that Harry, Hermione and Ron's friends had become concerned about them. The problem was that the three had created a cone of silence around themselves that their friends had discovered was nearly impossible to penetrate when the three had a problem or were worried. The fact that none of the rest of them had any idea what was going on with the trio certainly suggested that their concerns were founded. Now that he could see Harry and Hermione, Draco suspected that things were worse than any of the rest of them suspected. He knew that at the very least something had happened to Hermione since yesterday. He knew that if Madam Pomfrey had been able to remove the marks on Hermione's face she would have done it already. Which left the question: how did magic proof marks appear on Hermione's face? 

He sat waiting impatiently for Harry and Hermione to wake up. Draco hated waiting. He had never been any good at it. Ginny was trying to teach him to be more patient, but it was slow going. She had grown up poor in a house full of older brothers, so she was very good at waiting (she was also good at getting in and grabbing what she wanted before anyone got the chance at it). Draco had grown up the only child of a wealthy family, though, so he had rarely had to wait long for anything, and when he had his father had reinforced his impatience with everyone around him. Overcoming that training was hard. 

Suddenly a very brief wave of confusion washed over Draco as Hermione jerked in his arms and opened her eyes. She blinked and Draco helped her sit up. She instantly looked to Harry, but he hadn't shown any signs of waking up yet. 

"Is everything alright?" Draco asked. 

"I don't know," she replied. "I'm going to try talking to him telepathically and see what happens." 

"Is that a good idea right now?" 

"Maybe not, but I'm going to try it anyway." 

"He wouldn't want you to, you know." 

"I know, but I need to try." 

"Alright." 

Hermione took a deep breath, squeezed Harry's hand and sent out a thought to him. 

*Harry!* 

Nothing happened. Hermione waited a moment and then her shoulders fell in disappointment. 

*Hermione!* 

She jumped at hearing his voice in her head. 

*Harry! Are you alright?* 

*Yes. I'm somewhat confused, but alright.* 

*Harry, what's going on?* 

*I'm working on that. Give me a few more minutes.* 

*What?* 

*I'll wake up in a few minutes and then I'll explain. Don't join me again, but don't break physical contact with me either.* 

*Are you sure you're alright?* 

*I'm fine.* 

Hermione sighed and shifted herself into a more comfortable position. 

"I take it he responded?" Draco asked gently. 

"Yes, I did. He'll wake up in a few minutes and he's fine." 

"Well, that's good. It makes me less worried about him anyway. So what did you see in his head anyway?" 

"I'm not sure." 

"What?" 

"It was strange. All I saw was a man standing on the top of one of the Hogwarts towers looking out at the Forbidden Forrest. He seemed very tense, perhaps distraught. And then two women appeared walking on the grounds and he smiled, but it didn't make him any less tense. And then he turned to walk inside and Harry forced me to break contact." 

"He knew you were there? I thought it didn't work that way." 

"So did I, but rules like that don't always apply to Harry." 

"That's certainly true! Rules of any sort don't always apply to Harry!" 

Hermione laughed a little, but it was a strained laughter with little genuine mirth. Draco reached over and placed his hand on her shoulder in what he hoped would be a comforting gesture. 

"I know you're worried, but he did say he was ok, right?" 

Hermione nodded. She was close to tears suddenly. 

"Well, then it'll be alright." 

"Will it?" she asked looking up at him. He was dumbfounded. The slap mark on her face stood out and her eyes brimmed with tears. She looked genuinely scared, and that alone scared Draco. It took a lot to scare Hermione Granger, and Draco had only ever seen her cry once before. It wasn't a memory he liked, but it was also one he would never forget. 

~~~~~

"Eye of Newt!" Draco almost shouted. The secret door in the wall slid open and he carefully manoeuvred his way into the empty Slythrin common room. He was carrying the unconscious Hermione Granger and was trying not to bump her against the wall, but it was difficult to walk with his sprained ankle, even without her in his arms. She was extremely light, but he was tired, hurt, frustrated and scared, so it scarcely mattered. Ron followed him carrying Harry. The door closed silently behind them. Draco carefully laid Hermione on one of the sofas and collapsed into a chair nearby. Ron settled Harry onto the other sofa and walked wearily over to Draco. 

"Let me see your ankle," Ron instructed. 

"Shouldn't you worry about them first?" 

"I've done what I can for them for the moment, which isn't much. Hopefully they'll wake up soon. Give me your ankle." 

Ron dragged another chair over to face Draco and sat in it. Draco lifted his leg and allowed Ron to put it in his lap. 

"I can't fix it, and this might make it worse in the long run, but I can make it so that you can walk on it as though nothing was wrong and it won't hurt anymore." 

"Well, that's all I need right now. I'll worry about getting fixed when this is over. If I'm still alive, that is." 

"God, I hope we all stay alive." 

"Keeping the three of you alive long enough to win against Voldemort once and for all is the important thing right now. If anything happens to any of you, we won't have much chance. So don't worry about me." 

Ron had pulled Draco's shoe and sock off and was carefully looking at his ankle. He put his hands around the swollen ankle and said something under his breath. Draco felt warmth emanating from them. The warmth seemed to seep through to the bone and the pain was gone. The swelling was gone as well. Ron removed his hands, made sure the ankle was alright and then conjured a bandage and began wrapping the ankle. 

"What's that for?" Draco asked. 

"It's just in case something happens and my spell wears off." 

"Oh." 

Suddenly Hermione murmured and stirred on the sofa. Ron magically taped the bandage in place and hurried over to her. 

"Hermione," he said softly in her ear. "Come on, wake up." 

Ron's hand was on her shoulder and Draco heard his say something under his breath. Hermione stirred again and slowly opened her eyes. 

"Where's Harry?" she asked softly, as though she was half in a dream. 

"He's here. We're in the Slythrin common room." 

"Well obviously, Ron," she said in the impatient I'm-not-stupid voice she had. Slowly she sat up and looked around. Her eyes came to rest Harry's form unconscious on the other sofa. She stood up too fast and had to grad onto Ron before she fell. He steadied her. 

"Maybe you should sit for a minute," Ron suggested. 

"No, I have to check on Harry." 

"There's nothing we can do for him at the moment." Ron looked at her and it dawned on him. "No, Hermione, you can't. We have no idea what's going on with him right now and we can't risk it." 

"I need to do this. Maybe there's something we can do to help him." 

"Joining with him is to dangerous right now!" 

"Ron, I have to." 

Ron knew better than to argue with her any more. He followed her over to the other sofa. Hermione looked around for a minute trying to figure out how best to proceed. Finally she walked over to one of the big green velvet chairs that was nearby and tried to pull it, but it was too heavy. Ron saw what she was trying to do and helped her move the chair over next to Harry. Then he sat in it and she sat in his lap and took Harry's hand. Suddenly she collapsed and Ron cradled her against him. 

"What is she doing?" Draco asked coming over to look curiously. She appeared to have fainted, but he knew that couldn't be the case. 

"She's Joining," Ron said, obviously thinking it was a bad idea. 

"She's what?" 

"Joining. It's like she stepping into his head. She sees whatever he's seeing or feeling at the moment. If he's dreaming, she's seeing his dreams. If he's feeling pain, she's feeling it." 

"She can do that?" 

"Yes, she can. It was a power she gained after the Golden Triangle was formed." 

"Can you do it?" 

"No, we got different powers." 

"What can you do?" 

"Fix your ankle, for one," Ron said. 

"What else?" 

Before Ron could answer, Hermione cried out and shuddered in his arms as she came back to herself. A brief grimace crossed Ron's face, but his arms tightened around her. She dropped Harry's hand, buried her face in Ron's chest and dissolved into tears. Draco was taken aback. He had never seen Hermione like this, crying and clinging to someone else. Fear gripped him. What could be going on in Harry's head that would cause this reaction in Hermione? A moment later Harry stirred and awoke. He turned to Ron and Hermione and held out his arms. Ron gently transferred Hermione into Harry's lap and sat back down in the chair. Hermione's clung tightly to Harry as she sobbed. He held her and rocked back and forth slightly as he murmured soothingly into her hair. Ron was looking at them, but he was obviously thinking. Draco felt a brief wave of annoyance. The Golden Triangle allowed the three friends to communicate with each other telepathically. He understood that this was a valuable gift at the moment, but it annoyed him nonetheless. He couldn't help but feel left out when everyone else in the room was engaged in a silent conversation that he couldn't even hear. After a few moments Ron suddenly sat up abruptly, his eyes wide open. 

"We have to go," he exclaimed. "Voldemort's come to." 

"What about her?" Draco asked as Ron stood up and moved towards the door. 

"I've got her," Harry said as he scooped her into his arms and stood up. "She'll be fine by the time we get up there." 

"If you say so…" 

Draco was sceptical, but moved towards the door nonetheless. Harry, carrying the crying Hermione in his arms, followed close behind. 

~~~~~

Draco shuddered at the memory. That was a glorious day for the world, but one of the worst days of his and his friends' lives. The danger had been clear and obvious then, although neither she nor Harry ever had told him what was in Harry's head that day that upset her so much. He had no idea what was going on right now. Every cell in his body was screaming that something was terribly, terribly wrong, but he had no idea what it was. All he knew was that in the past day he had been reminded of the last few days when they were fighting Voldemort way too much. 

As Hermione cried and Draco rubbed one hand comfortingly on her back, the door suddenly opened. Ron walked in and shut and locked the door behind him. He came and sat on Hermione's other side. Without saying anything or letting go of Harry's hand, she hugged Ron tightly. 

Draco watched and felt a pang of hurt that he didn't have any friends like that. He banished the thought with a shake of his head. Now was not the time to feel sorry for himself. 

"What happened?" Ron asked into Hermione's hair. 

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed, breaking the hug. "There's a memory spell in this room that's still active. Can you find what it's cast on? Is it on the room as a whole?" As she spoke Hermione placed her hand on Ron's chest. 

Ron closed his eyes for a moment and suddenly reached out and touched Harry's shoulder. 

"It's on Harry." 

"Can you trace it?" 

"Give it to me again." 

Ron closed his eyes again. He was obviously concentrating hard. 

"Wait," Ron suddenly said as his eyes snapped open. "Are you sensing something with Harry's tag on it?" 

"Yes, a number of things. It's his classroom, after all." 

"No, something mixed in with the memory spell." 

Hermione concentrated. 

"That's it! What is that?" Ron asked. 

"That's a maintaining spell. It could be linked to anything though. It's still active, if that helps." 

"It's on himself." 

"What?" 

"I think that he's maintaining the memory spell." 

"Why would he do that?" 

"Because I was trying to figure it out," Harry said calmly as he opened his eyes. He startled all of them. Harry dropped Hermione's hand and sat up. He hugged her and kissed her gently. He broke the embrace, but their hands remained linked. 

"Trying to figure what out?" Ron asked. 

"It was a memory spell, but they weren't my memories," he said matter-of-factly. He turned to Hermione. "I'm sure you realized that." 

She nodded. 

"Why did you push me away? Perhaps I could have helped you!" 

Harry sighed and slowly stood up. He ran his fingers through his hair and began walking towards the window. Ron, Draco and Hermione stood up and watched him, waiting for an answer. 

"There were things in there that I didn't want you to have to watch," Harry finally said without turning back to them. 

"Like what?" Hermione asked. 

"Why don't we start at the beginning?" Harry said after another pause. He turned back to look at them. "I'm sure Draco is thoroughly confused by now." Suddenly he stopped. He was staring at Hermione's face. 

"I know," she said quietly. "We couldn't heal them." 

Harry's heart seemed to break at the admission. 

"All of them?" he asked, seeming to dread the answer. 

"All of them," she confirmed in barely a whisper. 

Harry looked like he might start crying himself. Ron looked upset as well. 

"Could somebody please explain this to me?" Draco suddenly asked. 

"Of course," Harry instructed. "Sit down." 

Draco and Ron each pulled out chairs from desks near the front of the room and Harry summoned his own desk chair over to where they were sitting. He sat down in it and pulled Hermione gently into his lap. The three chairs formed a tight circle in the front of the room. 

"Harry," Ron said suddenly, looking rather green. 

"What?" Harry asked. 

Ron didn't answer, but he pointed to the still engorged spider that was moving around on Harry's desk. Harry looked over at it and smiled wryly. 

"Reducio," he murmured. The spider grew back to its normal size and then suddenly disappeared and reappeared inside of the jar. The lid screwed itself onto the top of the jar. 

"Thanks," Ron said as the green tint left his cheeks. 

Harry, Ron and Hermione told Draco all about the Hermione's dream and the marks. 

"That's awful," Draco said, looking horrified, when they had finished. "I can't believe I was ever proud to be in his house." 

"That reminds me," Harry said suddenly, "you know Snape pretty well, right?" 

"Yeah, I guess so," Draco replied. "I'm not sure that anyone knows him that well." 

"I need to know everything I can find out about Salizar Slythrin and I'm wondering if Snape might be a good place to start." 

"Wouldn't Professor Binns be better?" Ron asked. 

"No," Hermione said. "I talked to him over lunch and he was less than thrilled to discuss what he considers legend, which leaves precious little regarding the founders." 

"What did you talk to him about?" Harry asked curiously. 

Hermione told them the story that Professor Binns had related to her earlier. 

"I don't like where this is going," Ron said when she finished. 

"Me neither," Harry agreed, "but it wasn't anything that I didn't already know. I wish there was a way we could get some more concrete information. It's too bad that there isn't a ghost around here that old." 

"A ghost!" Hermione suddenly exclaimed excitedly. She jumped off of Harry's lap and headed for the door. 

"Where are you going?" Ron called after as the three men got up and followed her. She didn't reply. She was hurrying through corridors and it was all the men could do to keep up with her. She kept ducking through hidden passageways, which was nothing new to Harry and Ron, but Draco had never seen them before. He wondered vaguely how they had found all of the secret doors, corridors, and staircases. He had lost track of where they were, but since the other three seemed to know, he just followed along. 

"Of course!" Harry exclaimed suddenly. 

"I wondered when you'd figure it out!" Hermione called back to them. 

"Harry, what is going on?" Ron asked exasperatedly. 

"Myrtle!" Harry said. 

"Oh!" Ron exclaimed, suddenly catching on. 

"Will someone please explain this to me?" Draco demanded. 

Before either Ron or Harry could answer though, they were pushing open the door to a girls' toilet. Draco stopped as he saw the sign on the door. 

"This is a girls' toilet!" he exclaimed. 

"Very good, Malfoy," Harry said sarcastically as he stuck his head out of the door. "Now stop being a prat and get in here!" 

"But…" Draco started to protest, but Harry grabbed his arm and dragged him inside. 

Hermione and Ron were standing in the doorway to the last stall talking, it seemed, to the toilet. Harry quickly joined them. Draco was still confused. 

"What are we doing here?" he asked. 

"Sod off, Malfoy!" Ron hissed. 

Draco was annoyed, but he shut up anyway. 

"Come on, Myrtle!" Hermione called again. Suddenly a wispy ghost whooshed out of the toilet and hovered before them. 

"Hello Hermione," she said mournfully. 

"Hi Myrtle," Ron said cheerfully. 

"You never come to see me anymore. Only Hermione comes to see me anymore." 

"I come once in a while!" Harry protested. 

"Not very often anymore." 

"Well, my office is on this floor, so I'll remember to stop by more often from now on." 

This seemed to cheer the ghost up a bit, although she was still far from cheerful. She suddenly noticed Draco and flew over to hover before him looking at him. 

"Who's your friend? He's cute!" 

Ron started laughing. 

"This is Draco Malfoy," Hermione said by way of introduction. "Draco, this is Myrtle." 

"Really?" Myrtle asked with interest. "He's gotten even cuter since I saw him last!" 

"I don't remember ever meeting you," Draco said in confusion. 

"Myrtle," Harry said exasperatedly, "tell me you didn't." 

"Why would I stop? It's one of the few pleasures I have left since no one comes to see me anymore." 

"What's going on here?" 

"Draco, did you ever take a bath in the Prefect's bathroom on the fifth floor?" 

"Sure." 

"Myrtle likes to watch people in there." 

Draco blushed. 

"Anyway," Hermione said quickly, "Myrtle, we wanted to ask you something." 

"People only come to see me when they want something. It's not fair!" Myrtle moaned. 

"I come and see you all the time with no ulterior motive!" 

"I suppose so," the ghost conceded, "but no one else ever does." 

"I'm sorry," Harry said. 

"Humph." 

"Are there any ghosts here who would have known the founders?" 

Myrtle thought for a moment, never taking her eyes off Draco. 

"Maybe," she finally said. 

"We really would like if you could help us, Myrtle," Ron said politely. "Is there some way we could find out? Or could you find out and tell us?" 

Myrtle smiled at him. 

"I suppose, on the condition that you all come visit me once in a while, I can go find out for you." 

"Harry and I can do that easily enough, but Draco and Ron aren't around here anymore," Hermione explained. 

"I can come whenever I'm in town," Ron volunteered. 

"I suppose I could stop by here every so often," Draco said, clearly still creeped out. 

"Good!" Myrtle exclaimed. "I'll go see what I can come up with! Where can I find one of you?" 

"We'll all be in my office," Harry announced. 

"Bye!" Myrtle called out, in a decidedly cheerier voice than she had when they arrived. Then she dived into the toilet spraying water around the stall. Luckily Harry, Hermione and Ron stepped back and Draco was far enough away already so that they didn't get splashed. 

"This day is getting weirder by the minute," Draco exclaimed. 

Ron started laughing again and Harry and Hermione smiled at him. 

"I've never met a ghost like that before!" Draco continued as they exited the bathroom and made their way to Harry's office. 

"You probably haven't met very many ghosts who were killed when they were…" Hermione said, and then turned to Harry. "How old would you guess she was?" 

"Probably a first or second year, so eleven or twelve." 

"I suppose that's true," Draco conceded. "It's still creepy to think that she watched me bathe!" 

Ron and Harry started laughing and Hermione smirked. Draco looked sullen. 

Harry unlocked the door to his office and opened the door. Hermione walked in first and Ron touched Harry's arm. 

"We'll give you a minute," he murmured and pushed Harry into the room. 

Harry heard the door click behind him. Before he knew what was happening, Hermione was entwined in his arms with her face buried in his chest. 

"Why is this happening?" Harry asked quietly. "Why can't the world leave us alone for a few years before falling apart?" 

"I don't know," Hermione whispered. 

"I'm sorry we couldn't make your bruises go away." 

"Don't worry about it. I'll be fine. I need to come up with something to hide them from my students and other people, but I'll be fine. It'll heal." 

"I just hope that it doesn't happen again." 

"We'll just have to come up with a way to guard against it." 

"The book!" Harry suddenly exclaimed as he let go of her and hurried around his desk. 

"What book?" 

"I spent some time in the library today. Do you remember the big book on ways influencing dreams? It was the restricted section." 

"_Dark Dream Spells and How to Cast Them_?" 

"Yeah, that's it," Harry said as he rummaged around. "I hid it here somewhere. I didn't want a student to be able to find it." 

"Harry, this is your private office. Students couldn't get in here to steal it." 

"That never stopped us!" 

Hermione laughed. 

There was a soft knock on the door. Hermione opened it and let Ron and Draco in. 

"Um…" Ron said, looking around, "where's Harry?" 

"I'm here," came Harry's voice from somewhere on the other side of the desk. 

"What are you doing?" Ron asked as he leaned over the cluttered desk to see Harry digging through piles of books, papers and assorted magical objects. 

"Where did this come from?" Harry suddenly asked. 

"What?" Hermione asked. 

"It's one of your shoes," Harry said picking up a strappy sandal and handing it to her across the desk. "I like those. How come you never wear them anymore?" 

"Because I was missing one. And now it's too cold." 

"I found it!" Harry exclaimed triumphantly as he pulled the book onto the desk. 

"Great!" Ron said enthusiastically. "What is it?" 

"Here," Harry said as he handed the book to Ron. 

"Harry, you don't have any chairs hidden underneath all this stuff, do you?" asked Hermione. 

"There's one somewhere." 

"I think I found it," Draco said as he started clearing stuff off of a vaguely chair-shaped area of the room. 

Hermione rolled her eyes and waved her hand. A chair appeared behind Ron, who sat in it without looking up from the book. She made another appear for her and let Harry conjure up his own. 

"Now, Harry, will you please tell us about what you were seeing in your classroom?" Hermione asked. 

"Right," he agreed. "There were five scenes that I was shown. I then went through them several more times trying to figure out what they meant. The first was the one you saw, Hermione. I had just restarted them again when you Joined me. It was a man with red hair about my height standing on the top of the staff tower looking out at the Forbidden Forrest. He was obviously nervous about something, more nervous than I have ever seen anyone be, but it was unclear what. Two women walked into view on the grounds and he watched them, smiling but still clearly uneasy. After watching them for a minute he turned and walked back down the stairs and into a room, shutting the door behind him. I pushed you away then," he said turning to Hermione, "because I didn't want you to have to watch the next scene. I would have rather not watched it myself. The next scene was Hermione's dream." 

Hermione drew her breath in sharply and her hand flew to her face. Ron, who had been paging through the book as he listened, looked up sharply, eyes wide. Draco paled. Harry himself was staring at his hands, which rested in his lap, as he went on. 

"It wasn't Hermione though, it was a woman I've never seen. She had brown hair, but it was straight, not curly, and she was taller. I think that she was one of the two women on the grounds in the first scene. The scene didn't play exactly the same as Hermione's dream though. She still fought back, but it was different. There was a different quality to the way she fought. It took me a few times to figure out what it was, because it was subtle. Hermione fought like she could save herself, this woman fought like she was trying to keep him at bay until someone else crashed through the door and saved her. Unfortunately, it ended the same way the dream did. No knight in shining armour showed up. It was just as awful. Just like the dream. 

The third scene had both the red haired man and Slythrin. They were having a horrible fight. They were screaming at each other, but what about was really unclear. Slythrin had done something to the other man and the man wanted to kill him for it. They seemed really close to blows, but Slythrin was always careful to stay away from the other guy. The man kept shouting things like 'how could you do that' and at one point 'even you aren't that evil'. He was furious. I've never seen anyone get that angry. Slythrin kept protesting that there was no proof he had done whatever it was and other such things. The problem was that he wasn't a very good actor and the other man knew it, so he didn't really need proof. I'm not sure all the proof in the world would have made a difference to him anyway. The man magically threw a lamp at him, which he dodged so that it smashed against that wall over his shoulder and that was the end of that scene. 

The fourth scene was much calmer. The red haired man was having a conversation a beautiful blond woman. He was nervous. He was in fancy dress robes and so was the woman. He was talking about another woman and how he wasn't good enough for her. She trusted him and he let her down, let her get hurt. He hated himself for it. There were even tears running down his face. The blond woman listened intently, but obviously didn't agree with him. She watched him pace and talk for a while. Then she forced him to sit down and started talking to him. She told him that it wasn't his fault, that the woman he loved didn't blame him, that she still loved him, and that he needed to pull himself together. He stared at her for a long moment and then stood up, walked over to the mirror in the room and started adjusting his robes and wiping his tears. 

Then it shifted to the last scene. This one took me a long time to figure out, and I'm still not completely sure about it. The red haired man was pacing back and forth in the hallway outside of the hospital wing. A woman could be heard screaming. It sounded like the brown haired woman from the dream scene. With every scream he got paler and either paced faster or stopped altogether for a moment. Finally there was one very loud final scream and he had to sit down. I don't think he could have formed a coherent sentence at that point if he tried. He couldn't decide if he should be deliriously happy or wracked with grief. A few minutes later the door opened and he stood up quickly. The blond woman came out with a baby wrapped in a white blanket. She handed it to the man. He seemed afraid to touch it, but she wrapped his arms around it and showed him how to hold it. He stared at it entranced. Suddenly he looked up at the woman and asked 'what is it?' The woman smiled and told him it was a daughter. He repeated the word after her and looked back at the child. A grin spread across his face and that was the end of it." 

No one said anything for several minutes. They all seemed lost in thought. 

"Alright," Hermione finally said, "what did you figure out about these images?" 

"Well, first I thought they had to be someone's memories, but since there was obviously no one else there in at least two of them, and it was never from a first person point of view, I don't think that they were any person's memories." 

"Then what were they?" Draco asked. 

"I think," Harry said slowly, "that they were the castle's memories." 

"The castle?" Draco asked in confusion. 

"The castle?" Ron repeated in disbelief. 

"No, that makes sense," Hermione said as it clicked into place in her mind. "The first thing that struck me about the spell, before I even started to think about what kind of spell it was, was that it had a tag that was totally foreign to me. Even when I have no idea who cast a spell, there is something familiar about the tag. There's a difference if the person is male or female, if they are British or not, all kinds of things make a difference. The spell had a tag, like all spells, but it had none of those familiar traces. I figured that it had been masked somehow, even though I have never heard of that being possible before. If it were the castle's tag though, it wouldn't have had any of those familiar aspects. I think Harry's right. The question is: why did the castle give you those memories?" 

"I think was to give us more information, if I interpreted the memories correctly. So here's what I think. Since there were only those four people in the memories, and one of them was Slythrin, I think that they were the four founders. That makes the red haired man Godric Griffindor. The brunette who was raped had to have been Rowena Ravenclaw, which means the blond was Helga Hufflepuff. I still don't know what was going on in the first scene. The second scene was the dream. Ravenclaw was being raped, but she was less proactive than Hermione is, she was waiting for Griffindor, who was brave, to save her. The third scene was Griffindor getting angry with Slythrin for raping Ravenclaw. I don't know if that was the fight that caused him to leave or not. The fourth one took me a while to figure out because nothing specific was said as to what was going on. I think that maybe it was Griffindor's wedding day and Hufflepuff was assuring him that he was worthy to marry Ravenclaw. The last one was the birth of their first child, although I don't understand why that one was significant either. Those are my thoughts. I want to find out more about Slythrin though because it may tell us more about it. What do you think?" 

"I think I have to go see Poppy, and Harry, you should come with me," Hermione announced as she stood up abruptly. 

"Why?" Harry asked, obviously very confused. 

"Go with her," Draco said softly. 

"What did I miss?" Ron asked, looking at Harry, who looked like he understood no more than Ron did. 

"Wait here," Hermione instructed. "Keep looking through that book for something useful, and wait for Myrtle. We'll come back when we're done." 

She shut the door behind her and stepped into Harry's chest. He wrapped his arms around her protectively, even though he still hadn't figured it out. 

"Please let me be wrong," Hermione whispered. 

Harry just barely caught the words and his arms tightened around her as a look of horror spread across his face. 

* * * * * * * * * *

Notes: 

The flower that Hermione gave to Harry in chapter two, the Nasturtium, is real and does have the symbolic meanings given. 

The plant that Hermione's students were working on, the Salvia Divinorum, also exists. The name means 'Diviner's Sage' and it's used for soul searching and used to be used for healing and shamanistic purposes by the Mazatecs and other tribes. 


	5. Where Do We Go From Here?

~ 

Chapter Five: Where Do We Go From Here? 

"Alright, Draco," Ron asked as the door closed behind Hermione and Harry, "what was that all about?" 

"I think," Draco said quietly, "that the baby Harry saw in that last memory was Slythrin's, not Griffindor's. So..." 

"Hermione might be pregnant?" 

Draco nodded. 

"I'm sure she's got protection charms, though, so how could she be?" Ron asked thoughtfully. 

"How could a dream give her wounds that can't be healed by magic?" Draco asked quietly in response. 

Ron stared at Draco in horror for a moment, and then buried his nose in the book of dreams again. 

As Ron flipped through the book, Draco looked around at Harry's office. He had been in here a few times when it had been Professor Fowler's office (Professor Moody's replacement). It had been messy then, but nowhere near as bad as it was now. There were no pictures on the walls anymore, but then, there were bookshelves taking up most of the wall space now. The same desk was there and a small table had been added under the window. There were what Draco was sure passed to Harry for neat stacks of student papers on the desk around a relatively clear workspace. There were papers, books and magical objects everywhere. Somehow the room seemed to fit Harry's personality perfectly and Draco knew that Harry could find anything he wanted in this clutter at a moment's notice (even if no one else could). Draco was looking around when he suddenly noticed something sticking out of the ceiling. He stood up and walked over to Harry's desk. He had to climb onto Harry's chair to reach the object. It was a quill, and it was jammed so far into the ceiling that Draco couldn't get it to budge an inch. 

"Ron, why do you suppose there's a quill stuck into the ceiling?" 

Ron looked up at the quill. 

"I don't know. It probably happened when he was working on one of his projects. 

"I suppose. Any luck with the book yet?" 

"Not really." 

"Is there anyone here who might be able to help us?" 

Ron considered this for a moment. 

"Normally I would say Hermione. I suppose we could ask McGonegall." 

"We should wait for classes to end, then." 

"Probably. In the mean time, look around. There should be a book on memory impressions around here somewhere (unless it's in Harry's chambers or something). It might be able to help us with his visions." 

Draco started to climb down off the chair and Ron returned to his reading. Suddenly Ron dropped the book and swore. Draco whipped around to see what the problem was and saw Ron standing up, book at his feet, staring into Myrtle's face. 

* * *

Poppy pointed her wand at Hermione's bare belly and murmured an incantation. A yellow glow enveloped Hermione's abdomen. Poppy frowned. She murmured another spell and the yellow turned to green. 

"What does it mean?" Hermione asked nervously. 

"You aren't pregnant right now," Poppy said as she lowered the wand, "but you may easily become pregnant in the next few days." 

"That's probably not a good thing," Hermione said very softly. Harry squeezed her hand reassuringly. 

"Actually, it might be a very good thing," he said slowly. Both women looked at him hopefully. "I may have an idea, but I need to go and grab a book from the library to make sure." 

"What is your idea?" 

"I'll tell you as soon as I find the book I need. Get dressed and go back to my office and wait for me. Alright?" 

"Alright," Hermione said with a sigh. Harry kissed her quickly and hurried off to the library. 

Hermione got up and fastened her robes closed. 

"Thank you, Poppy," she said. 

"You are very welcome, Hermione," the nurse said warmly. "I hope that everything turns out for the best." 

"So do I." 

* * * 

"Don't do that!" Ron exclaimed. 

"Sorry," Myrtle said. "I found someone who remembers the founders!" 

"Who?" Ron asked quickly. 

"He was a student here and he died the same way I did!" 

"The Basalisk killed him?" 

"Yep!" 

"Where is he?" 

"He spends most of his time in one of the dungeon rooms. Where are Hermione and Harry?" 

"They should be back soon." 

"Oh. Do you want to go meet Hamish?" 

"Is Hamish the ghost?" 

"Yes." 

"We should wait for Harry and Hermione." 

"Alright. Hey, what are you reading?" 

"A book about dreams." 

"Oh," Myrtle said disappointedly. She floated over to Draco. "How are you?" 

"Fine." 

"That's good." 

The door opened and Hermione walked in. Both Draco and Ron looked at her expectantly. 

"Well?" Ron asked, setting the book down and walking over to her. 

"Well, I'm not pregnant," she replied. 

"There's something else," Ron said worridly, as he searched her face. 

"I can become pregnant any time in the next few days." 

Draco sucked in his breath quickly. 

"We'll figure something out," Ron reassured her as he gave Hermione a comforting hug. "Where's Harry?" 

"He ran to the library for a book. He said that he has an idea." 

"I don't suppose he told you what the idea was?" 

"Does he ever?" Hermione replied with a wry smile. 

As they waited for Harry, Myrtle told Hermione about Hamish. 

Harry came into the room with a very old book under his arm. He handed the book to Hermione and began fishing around on the table under the window. 

"Do you both have your wands?" he asked. 

"Yes," Ron replied. "Why?" 

"Because you're going to need it. 'Mione?" 

"_Accio_," she said. 

"What are we going to do, Harry?" Ron asked. 

"We're going to cast a spell on 'Mione," Harry replied. Finally he pulled out his wand. 

"What kind of spell?" 

"An illusion spell." 

Hermione's wand sailed in through the window and into her hand. 

"What kind of illusion?" Ron persisted. 

"A powerful one." 

"Harry," Hermione asked as she looked at the book he had brought in, "why did you need this book?" 

"It's where I got the idea." 

"What book is it?" Ron asked. 

"It's a history book about witch hunts in Europe." 

Harry looked through the bookshelf behind his desk and pulled out another very old book. He flipped through it for a moment and then set it down, open to the page he wanted. 

"Alright," he instructed, "Hermione needs to stand in the middle holding our hands, Ron to her right, me to her left." 

Ron and Hermione went to their places beside Harry. 

"Say the words with me (I'll let you know when you need to do anything else). Ready?" 

They nodded. 

"Draco," Harry said suddenly, "you need to support 'Mione if she starts to fall or anything. Just don't use any magic to do it!" 

"Sure thing," Draco replied. He went to stand near Hermione. 

Harry began chanting and Ron and Hermione joined him without missing a beat. 

_Ron_, Harry said in Ron's head after a few moments, _we need to encircle 'Mione with our arms._

They dropped hands and did as Harry had said, holding hands on either side of Hermione. They all continued chanting. 

_Hermione_, Harry commanded silently a few moments later, _stop chanting... Now!_

Harry and Ron continued chanting. Suddenly Hermione gasped and looked like she would fall, but before Draco could reach out to support her she steadied herself. 

_Chant with us again, 'Mione_, Harry instructed. 

She joined the chanting again, but her voice was weaker. 

As they completed the spell, Draco listened intently to their voices. It was like a beautiful song. The three voices danced around each other in a complex harmony. The words themselves disappeared and were replaced by mere sounds. Draco had rarely had the opportunity to hear the Golden Triangle perform spells together. It was unlike anything else he had ever experienced and it still awed him. A tremendous amount of raw power crackled in the air around the three. The room was unnaturally still and the only sound was the awesome melody being woven from Harry, Ron, and Hermione's voices. The office almost seemed to vanish leaving nothing except the three best friends chanting. Draco and Myrtle scarcely dared to breathe or move. 

Finally the spell ended. As soon as the air began to cease crackling with powerful magic, Hermione began to fall. Ron caught her and carefully sank to the floor with her. He rocked her back and forth as she sat crying softly, although it was all he could do to keep himself from collapsing too. Harry sat down in Ron's empty chair and closed his eyes. It was only as they saw _Harry_ looking drained that Draco and Myrtle realized just how major the spell had been. Harry was the first to pull himself together. He sat on the floor next to Ron and gently took Hermione into his lap. He held her tenderly and murmured softly in her ear. Ron steadied himself with his hand and closed his eyes. After a couple of minutes Ron opened his eyes and stood up slowly. He sat in his chair again and took the dream book back into his lap. He sat there slowly looking through it. 

After several more minutes Hermione wiped her eyes. Harry stood and then helped her up. For a moment she simply stood wrapped in his arms, but then she pulled away and went to sit in her chair. Harry watched her sit down before speaking again. 

"Hermione," he said, breaking the total silence that filled the room, "I need you to bond to me." 

Hermione and Ron stared at Harry as if he had just suggested they all become Death-Eaters. Draco looked at Myrtle in confusion, but she didn't seem to understand either. 

"Harry," Hermione asked unsurely, "are you certain that is what you want?" 

"Yes, I am." 

"What if I can't break the bond later?" 

"You will be able to." 

"How do you know that?" 

"I know you and your power. If anyone can do it, it's you." 

"You have more confidence in me than I do." 

"Come on, 'Mione, just form the bond." 

"Alright," Hermione said reluctantly. 

"Harry," Ron inquired, "is that wise? What if something happens to one of you?" 

"If it does, we'll deal with it. The bond will allow me to protect 'Mione in her dreams." 

Ron didn't reply, but he didn't look happy either. 

"What was the spell that you just did?" Myrtle asked curiously. "And what does a bond do?" 

"The spell created an illusion," Hermione explained. "It fooled my body into believing that it is pregnant." 

"Why did you do that?" 

"If her body believes it's already pregnant," Harry explained, "then she won't be able to become pregnant." 

"Oh. So what is a bond?" 

"A bond joins two people together. They feel each other's pain and pleasure. It also allows each person to always know where the other is. They tend to share or gain access to one another's dreams. Bonds are extremely difficult to form, and are thus quite rare. There are only a handful of wizards and witches around who are able to form them. Hermione happens to be one of those people." 

"What Harry neglected to mention," Hermione said sharply, "is that bonds take a lot of concentration to form, and to break. Only the one who forged the bond can break it. So if something horrible happens to me, I may not be able to break the bond." 

"Is the bond dangerous then?" Draco asked. 

"It certainly can be. If one of us dies, so does the other." 

"And you want to be in one of these?" Myrtle asked Harry. 

"Yes." 

"Harry," Ron asked, putting his hand on his friends shoulder, "are you absolutely certain that you want to do this?" 

"Yes, I am. It's the most effective way that I can think of to protect Hermione from her nightmares." 

"Harry, what if something happens to one of us?" Hermione inquired. 

"Then we will deal with it. We've dealt with bad things happening before and we can certainly do it again." 

"Alright," Hermione sighed. She still wasn't sure, but experience had taught her that fighting with Harry on something like this was useless. 

"'Mione," Harry said softly as he moved closer to her and gently lifted her chin, "do you trust me?" 

"Of course I do," she replied quietly. "I'm just scared." 

"So am I. It's alright. I'll always be here for you." 

Harry wrapped his arms around Hermione for a quick hug then stepped back a bit to give her space. 

"_Accorporo_," she whispered softly, flicking her wand. Then she touched it's tip to Harry's chest and to her own. Then she stepped up and embraced him again. 

A soft pink light encompassed the couple. As they stepped apart, the light dissipated. Harry suddenly felt pain. It seemed as though his whole body was covered in fresh bruises and ached with soreness. 

"Is all of this from last night?" he asked in horror. 

"The pain?" Hermione asked. 

"Yes, and the soreness." 

"Most of it is, yes." 

"I'm so sorry, Hermione." 

"It's alright," she assured him. "The pain isn't so bad right now." 

Harry knew very well that she was lying (or at least hoped she was) because he felt the pain himself, but he didn't contradict her. 

"Are we done here for the moment, Harry?" Ron inquired. 

"Yes, unless anyone else knows of anything that we need to do here?" 

No one had anything. 

"Then we should go to see the ghost that Myrtle found," Hermione suggested. 

They all agreed and followed Myrtle out of the office. Myrtle led them deep into the dungeons. As they went, they filled Harry in on what Myrtle had found. In a tiny room they found a ghost sitting and staring blankly at a picture of a mountain that hung on the wall. Ron closed the door behind them so that they would not be disturbed. 

Harry approached the ghost cautiously, so as not to startle it. 

"Hello," he said politely. 

The ghost turned to him. 

"Hello," it replied quietly. 

"My name is Harry and these are my friends Ron, Draco and Hermione." 

As Harry introduced them Hermione looked at the ghost curiously. It appeared to be a teenage boy. He looked sadder than anyone Hermione had ever met before. 

"Hi," the ghost said shyly as it looked around. "My name is Hamish." 

"Pleased to meet you, Hamish," Hermione replied. 

"Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?" Harry asked. 

"Alright," the ghost replied. 

"How well did you know the founders?" 

"Pretty well." 

"Can you tell me about Salizar Slythrin?" 

"He was creepy. He was always very secretive and spent most of his time hiding down in the dungeons working on his strange projects." 

"What kinds of projects?" 

"I don't know, but whatever it was, it made Godric very angry." 

"How do you know that?" 

"Because they would have arguments about it when no students were around." 

"How did you hear these arguments?" 

"They were loud. Their voices echoed through the entire tower." 

"Which tower?" 

"The one the teachers lived in." 

"Why were you there?" 

"Because during vacations I had a room there next to my mother's." 

"Who was your mother?" 

"Helga Hufflepuff." 

"I see. What else can you tell us about Slythrin?" 

"He was creepy. He always seemed to be mixing things to make potions. I don't know what most of them did. Godric, Rowena and my mother certainly didn't approve of his potion experiments. He also always had at least one snake around." 

"What kinds of potions did he make?" 

"I don't know." 

"Can you tell us anything else about him?" 

"Not really. My mother didn't want me to spend much time with him." 

Hermione walked closer to the ghost. 

"Can you tell us about the other founders?" she asked. 

"Well, Godric and Rowena were in love. They were always being lovey-dovey when there weren't students to see them. The students knew about it, but I guess Rowena and Godric thought it wouldn't be proper if they kissed or anything in front of them. I always sort of hoped that I would someday be in love like that." 

Hamish fell silent as he stared at the floor. 

"How did you die?" Hermione said quietly. 

"I went down to the dungeons to get something for my mother," Hamish said quietly and slowly. "I heard someone scream. It was summer, so the students were gone, so I wondered who could be screaming like that and why. They just kept on screaming over and over, so I followed the screams. Suddenly they stopped. I kept walking towards where they came from. Suddenly Slythrin came around a corner in front of me. He saw me and said something strange. A snake slithered out of an opening in the wall and when I saw it, I died." 

"I'm sorry," Hermione said. "Can we come talk to you again if we have any more questions?" 

"Sure. Can I come talk to you once in a while? It's been a long time since I had someone to talk to." 

"Of course!" 

"Thank you!" 

"Thank you for the information," Harry said. "We really appreciate it." 

"Good-bye!" Hamish said. 

"Good-bye!" the group replied. 

They went up to Harry and Hermione's small apartment in the staff tower. They sat down and discussed the information that they had thus far. 

"Hamish must have been hearing Slythrin rape Rowena," Ron said thoughtfully after a while. 

"Yeah," Draco agreed, "but he sure didn't have much information for us." 

"What he did tell us may prove extremely useful, however," said Hermione. 

"So now what are we going to do?" Draco asked. 

"You should go home," Harry said. "I'll keep you posted on how things are going and will send for you when we need you." 

"Alright," Draco agreed. "You're probably right. It's getting late." 

They said goodbye and Draco left. 

"Ron," said Harry, "would you mind spending the night here? There's an empty room across the corridor." 

"I was going to suggest it myself," Ron replied. "Can we link me to Hermione so that I'll know when she starts dreaming?" 

"Yes, we can," Hermione replied. She walked over to Ron and touched his chest. She murmured something quietly and for a moment a blue light surrounded both of them. After the light disappeared again, Hermione sank into a comfortable blue chair. Harry was pacing in front of the fireplace. 

"We should contact Dumbledore," he said. 

"I already did," Hermione informed them. 

"When?" Harry asked in surprise. 

"While you were seeing those memories this afternoon. I sent out two owls, one to Ron and one to Dumbledore. He should get it late tomorrow or the day after." 

"What did you tell him?" Ron asked. 

"I gave a one-line account saying we were dealing with Death-Eaters who seem more dangerous than we had previously thought and said that there were other problems that I didn't want to tell him about in writing, so he may contact us after he gets the message. Is there anything else I should have said?" 

"Not in a letter," Harry said thoughtfully. 

Both Ron and Hermione could see the gears in his head turning. They waited a moment, even though they knew he wouldn't just tell them what he was thinking (after all, that would be too easy!). 

"Harry, what are you thinking?" Ron asked finally. 

"I'm not sure," Harry replied slowly. "I'm trying to find a way to buy us more time." 

"More time?" 

"I want to know more about what we are up against before anything else happens that we have to deal with. I feel like we are missing something. It feels like something big, but I can't quite put my finger on it." 

Harry and Hermione's little sitting room was neat and cozy, with bookshelves lining three walls and plush blue chairs before the stone hearth. It absolutely screamed 'Hermione' in every corner. Nothing was out of place, but everything felt within reach. Ron sank farther into his chair as he contemplated what Harry had said. Harry stood resting him forehead on the mantle thinking. Hermione however took half a moment to think then held out one hand. A thin book bound in fading dark red leather floated from one of the shelves into her hands. She opened it and quickly began flipping through the pages. Her brow wrinkled as she searched through the book. 

"What are you looking for?" Ron asked her curiously. 

"A story." 

"Isn't it in the table of contents?" 

"There isn't one." 

"Why not?" 

Hermione smiled a rare sparkling grin at him. 

"That would be too easy, Ron!" 

Ron and Harry both laughed. They had all said that countless times in the last year of school when they were trying to defeat Voldemort. It had almost become an inside joke. It had always seemed that Harry and Hermione's solutions to problems were unnecessarily complicated. Ron would listen to their ideas and then suggest something ridiculously simple. They would then go from there. The pattern let them reach a solution that was rarely too complicated or too simple, but just about right. 

"I found it!" Hermione said triumphantly. 

"Found what?" asked Harry as he crossed the room to look over her shoulder. 

"This is a book of Muggle fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderson. My grandmother used to read to me from this book. My favourite story was called "The Magic Galoshes". It's about a pair of galoshes that keep getting passed from man to man and has the power to grant wishes. One of the wishes always intrigued me and I think that if we can grant that wish, it will help us." 

"What is the wish?" Harry asked curiously. He was leaning over the back of her chair looking at the book nestled in her lap. 

Hermione read from the book, "'The future you'll find out soon enough anyway,' he thought. 'But what goes on in another man's soul, never. Now take the people who are sitting in the first row; if one could climb into their hearts, as if each were a different store… oh, how my eyes would go shopping!'" 

Ron's jaw dropped. 

"Can we do that?" he asked. 

"I can't," Hermione replied, "but I think Harry could if we used the power of the Golden Triangle." 

"Perhaps," Harry said thoughtfully. He took the book from Hermione and read through the passage. "How do we get close to him, though?" 

"In my dreams," Hermione said softly. 

"It's worth a try, I suppose. Ron, can you anchor me?" 

"Of course. But what about 'Mione? You're linked." 

"I can get around that. We need to prepare this then, so that I can just jump into it at the right time." 

The trio carefully constructed the spell so that it would be ready when they needed it. Then Ron went across the hall to bed and Harry and Hermione were left alone. 

Harry took Hermione's hand and led her into the bedchamber. There were four pieces of furniture: a stand-up full length mirror with intricate carving around the outside, a chair with curving legs and red velvet upholstery, a massive wooden wardrobe with brass handles on the doors, and a large four-poster bed with red satin bed curtains. Harry led Hermione to the wardrobe and stood before her. Carefully he undid the fastenings of her azure robes. The material slid off her shoulders and he opened the wardrobe. He carefully hung up the heavy robes and opened a drawer. He removed a red satin nightgown. He reached behind her and unhooked her lacy bra, which then fell to the floor. She put her arms up and he slid the liquid nightgown over her head. Then he pulled her into him and kissed her tenderly. Hermione wrapped her arms around his shoulders and deepened the kiss. Harry scooped her up into his arms and carried her to the bed. The curtains parted and the red velvet coverlet slid aside to reveal the black satin sheets underneath. Harry laid her gently on the bed and kissed her again. He covered her with the sheet and coverlet and leaned in so that his lips brushed her ear. 

"_Dorme_," he whispered. She was asleep almost instantly. 

Harry changed and slid into the bed beside her. He also fell asleep almost instantly. 

~ ~ ~

She opened her eyes and looked around. She was sitting in a large, hard wooden chair. There were no candles in the room, the only light came from a single window in the wall across from her. Silhouetted in the window was a man. Moonlight poured in around the man and pooled in the middle of the floor. A cold shiver ran up her back. She looked down and saw that she was wearing deep purple robes of a style that had been out of date for centuries. She reached up and felt that her brown hair was coiled in braids on top of her head. She looked back at the man and an icy shiver ran down her spine again. The man turned around and walked towards her. 

"Welcome, darling," he said in a cold, flat tone. 

"I am not your darling!" she hissed. 

"Of course you are. And now you will be my bride and bear my children." 

"I will never_ be yours!" _

He held out his hand and on his palm a ring appeared. It looked like a snake eating its own tail and two diamonds were set where its eyes should have been. He grabbed her hand roughly and tried to slide the ring onto her ring finger, but something stopped it. It was like a force field surrounded her finger and protected it. The man howled in rage and threw the ring across the room. 

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" he raged. 

"I will NEVER be yours!" she screamed back. 

"You ARE mine! You have always been mine and you will always BE mine!" "She has never been yours," said a familiar voice. 

She turned towards the voice and was overjoyed to see her beloved standing in a doorway. He shut the door and entered the room. He was tall and proud, looking down to no one. The scar on his forehead seemed to glow of its own accord. 

"How did you get here?" the man demanded. 

"I followed my love," her beloved replied. "I could find her in the darkest depths of Foeditas! For we are joined by the bonds of love and you can not break that with a thousand Severing Charms." 

The man howled in rage. 

~ ~ ~

Hermione shifted and moaned in her sleep, but didn't awaken. Harry lay motionless beside her, breathing evenly. 

~ ~ ~

He was in what appeared to be a temple. Behind a large stone altar was a large statue of a snake with ruby eyes. Two candles burned steadily on the altar. Walking closer he saw that there was also a white silken cloth on the altar with bloodstains on it. Carefully he lifted the cloth. Underneath were broken pieces of gold. There were two pieces there and it seemed like another piece was missing. He looked around the room. Behind him, across from the snake statue, was a doorway. On either side of the doorway were statues. One was unmistakably the tall, dark man. Under the man's feet were pieces of another statue, as if he had stepped on it and destroyed it. On his face was a smirk of satisfaction. The other statue was a beautiful woman dressed in fancy dress robes of a medieval style. Her face was one he knew well. She seemed in great pain. Her hands reached out as if to plead for help, but knew it wasn't forthcoming. 

~ ~ ~

Now Harry shifted in his sleep too. 

~ ~ ~

"You sold out to him!" the man yelled at her. 

"He is my love!" she replied defiantly. 

"You are no better than a whore!" 

"If I am a whore, then why do you want me?" 

"Because you belong to me!" 

"No, I belong to myself. Not to you. I will NEVER belong to you!" 

The man howled in frustration. He drew his hand back as if to hit her, but someone grabbed it before he could swing it. 

She looked up and saw the knight. He wore a look of fury, like fire incarnate. 

Fear seemed to cloud the man's eyes suddenly. She had never seen him look afraid before. 

The knight roughly pulled the man away from where she sat. His face was inches away from the man's face and their eyes were locked. 

"If ever you hurt her again," he said softly but with a fierce intensity, "I will make you regret it. You will feel all of her pain three-fold for all eternity. She is a great woman, and thus demands respect. Never forget that." 

"How can I respect her?" the man asked harshly. "She is a woman." He almost spit the word woman. "Women are bitches and whores. How can I respect that? All she's good for is to be my slave." 

The knight's eyes narrowed dangerously. 

"You aren't worthy enough to kiss her feet," he breathed. 

The knight's fist connected with the man's face. She heard a crunch of bone just before the man vanished. The knight, strong and steady, blazed with fury and anger. The woman stared at him in awe and her beloved nodded with pride and thanks at the knight. 

~ ~ ~

Ron sat up in bed, breathing heavily. His eyes still glinted with fire. He got up quickly and ran from the room. He tore across the hall and didn't even stop to knock before he entered his friends' sitting room. Hermione was just emerging from the bedchamber, with Harry close behind her. Ron hurried to her and swept her into a warm hug, lifting her feet from the floor. He just held her for several long moments. He finally put her down again and she kissed his cheek. 

"Thank you," she whispered. He could hear that she was close to tears. 

"I'm sorry I wasn't there sooner. Did he hurt you?" 

"No, you were there before he could hurt me." 

"Good." 

Harry put his hand on Ron's shoulder. 

"Thank you, Ron." 

"Sorry I stopped anchoring you, I just decided she was more important just then." 

"I would have been disappointed if you hadn't. Thank you for helping her." 

Hermione had tears running down her cheeks and Ron lifted her chin to look into her face. She looked at him for a moment, but then pulled away and buried her face in his chest and cried. Ron looked at Harry with a worried expression. 

"'Mione," Harry said softly, "what's wrong?" 

She just cried and held on tightly to Ron. 

"I was so scared," she sobbed, not even looking up. "He scares me so much!" 

Ron carefully handed Hermione to Harry and created a glass of water on the table beside him. Harry rocked Hermione in his arms until her sobs slowed down. He pulled her onto his lap in a chair and pressed his forehead to hers. 

_I'm here_, he said in her head. 

_Thank you_, she replied. _I couldn't do this without you._

When Hermione was calmed down, Ron handed her the glass of water. She drank it slowly and snuggled into her lover's arms. For several minutes the three just sat in each other's company in silence. 

"Harry," Hermione asked suddenly, "did you see what happened with the ring?" 

Harry's brow furrowed. 

"What ring? And what happened?" 

"He had a ring that he tried to put on my finger, but it didn't work. It was like something was pushing it away." 

"What happened exactly?" 

"He grabbed my wrist and held my hand out," she explained. 

"Which hand?" 

"Left," she said, holding out her left hand. On her wrist were marks where he had grabbed her roughly. "Then a ring appeared in his hand and he tried to put it on my finger, but something pushed it away, so it wouldn't slid on. Then he grew furious and threw the ring across the room. He started saying that I was his. You were there just after that. I thought perhaps you'd seen it." 

"No, I didn't." 

"What did the ring look like?" Ron asked. "Was it an engagement ring or something?" 

"I don't know what it was supposed to mean," she replied as she thought back to the dream, "but it looked strange." She described the snake ring in as much detail as possible. 

"It might just be that he chose that ring because of his fascination with snakes," Ron suggested. 

"Perhaps," Harry agreed. 

"What did you see in him?" Hermione asked Harry. 

"It was odd," he said thoughtfully. "It was almost like a temple. There was an altar at one end with a huge snake statue behind it." He described the temple and the statues. 

"What was the gold thing? Before it was broken, I mean." 

"I don't know," Harry replied. "It was not a geometric shape. I think it was a symbol of some kind." 

"That's odd. I wonder what it meant?" 

"I don't know." 

"I think," Ron piped up, "that we should get some sleep. We can figure out where to go from here in the morning." 

"Agreed," said Harry. "Come on, beautiful, back to bed." 

They all went back to bed, but Hermione lay awake for a long time thinking of the snake and the symbol. What did it all mean? 

* * *

When Hermione woke up in the morning she was alone in bed. She could hear very quiet voices in the next room. She threw back the covers and stood up. Her dressing gown was laying across a chair waiting for her, so she slipped it on and went out into the sitting room. Harry was sitting in one of the big chairs and Ron in another. Hermione went to Ron and kissed him on the cheek before crossing to Harry and kissing his lips. Harry pulled her into his lap and handed her a cup of tea he had just created. She took a sip of tea before saying anything. 

"What have you been talking about?" 

"Strategy, beautiful," Harry replied. "We're trying to figure out what to do next." 

"Any ideas?" Ron asked. 

"I don't know," she answered thoughtfully. "I keep thinking about the temple Harry saw and the snake ring. They must mean something. Why couldn't he get that ring onto my hand?" 

"I don't know," Harry said with a frown. "I think we need to do some research to find out what we can about that ring. I don't know what to do about the gold symbol in the temple. Let me think about that one." 

"In the meantime, we have to plan a party." 

"I forgot all about that!" Ron exclaimed. "What are we going to do about that?" 

"First we need a location." 

"Harry's house?" 

"That won't work. It's not a known location and I don't really want it to become known. I'd rather not have Death Eaters dropping by whenever they feel like it." 

"Alright. And we can't have it here." 

"What about the Three Broomsticks?" Harry suggested. "It's a public place, we know the proprietor, and we know the place well enough to be able to set it up as firmly home turf. We want as much control of the situation as possible when it comes down to it." 

"That's a good idea." 

"What kind of party should it be?" Harry asked. 

"I was thinking about that," Hermione replied. "We need to draw attention, so it needs to be unusual. I was thinking that a costume party might be the way to go. It's interesting enough to catch people's eye and there hasn't been a major costume party in a while. What do you think?" 

"It's perfect!" Harry exclaimed. "It might even let us set some traps of our own." 

"Like what?" 

"What if we could make them think that we didn't have the power of three?" 

"That would require breaking the golden triangle though. We can't do that, Harry!" 

"I don't mean actually breaking the power of three, I mean just making them think that we aren't all there, so the two that are don't have as much power to draw from." 

"I get it!" Ron exclaimed. "I'll pretend that I went back to the continent on business and we can make it almost impossible for them to prove otherwise by sending a double, but actually be here and go to the party in disguise. Right?" 

"Exactly." 

"If they buy it," Hermione said thoughtfully, "we'd have a huge advantage. We need to send a Geminus to the continent. Harry and I can host the party." 

"I can be there in disguise the whole time," Ron said. "We can cast a shielding spell on me so that they can't detect me in the crowd." 

"'Mione, why don't you go get dressed. We do have classes to teach today." 

"Alright," Hermione said suspiciously. "What do you two want to talk about without me?" 

"It's a surprise. Go get dressed." 

"Yes, dear." 

* * *

Harry and Hermione taught their classes all morning as usual, but both seemed distracted. Hermione's quill was writing by itself on her desk through all of her classes while Harry stopped every once in a while to jot something down. 

Hermione had third years just before lunch in the greenhouses. She was demonstrating how to properly prune a particular herb plant when a note suddenly appeared at the base of the plant. She glanced at it and saw Harry's scrawling script on the page. After she was finished with her demonstration, she picked up the note and read it. 

_Mione - Meet Ron and me in our room for lunch. We need to get stuff planned._

There were no more disasters than usual, but the class seemed to drag on forever. Pruning was not the most fascinating thing to watch students do. 

She hurried up to the suite she shared with Harry, fighting against the crowd of students. Harry and Ron were already there when she walked in. A plate of sandwiches was sitting on the table. A chair slid back for her and she joined them. 

"So what's first?" Ron asked, reaching for a sandwich. 

"A guest list," Hermione said. 

A scroll and quill appeared in front of her and the quill began to write. The three busily composed the guest list and ate their lunches. Ron and Harry were arguing over something animatedly. Hermione smiled as she tried not to laugh at them arguing. She looked down at her sandwich again as she reached for it, and froze. She stared at the table with a look of horror on her face, but didn't say a word. 

_Look_, she said sharply in Ron and Harry's heads. The men looked over at her in surprise. 

Sitting in front of Hermione on the table was a silver ring. It looked like a snake eating its own tail and two diamonds were set where its eyes should have been. 

"Where did that come from?" Ron asked. 

_'Mione_, Harry asked silently, _what's wrong? What is it about that ring? _

That's the ring from the dream. The one he tried to put on my finger. 

Harry's face darkened. He reached out for the ring cautiously. Hermione sucked in her breath and unconsciously pulled away from it. Harry's fingertips barely touched the ring, and he snatched them away with a growl. 

"It burnt me," he said, examining his fingers. 

Hermione took his hand in hers and touched his fingers. Nothing happened. Hermione scowled. 

"I can't heal it. The burn won't go away." 

"Don't touch it again," Ron said slowly. "We need to figure out why this ring is here though. It wouldn't have appeared for no reason. Hermione, whatever you do, don't touch it. I just have this feeling that something awful will happen if you do." 

"But we probably won't know what's going on if I don't." 

"But something bad could happen if you do." 

"I don't want anything to happen to you, beautiful," Harry said seriously. "He's already finding enough ways to hurt you, that ring could be another." He reached up and touched the mark on her cheek. She flinched away from his touch. 

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, "it still hurts a lot." 

_Ron, we have to do something. I can't watch her go through this for much longer. I'm already at the end of my rope. _

I know, Harry, but hold on, for her sake. Let's worry about this ring right now. We can talk later, when she isn't around, about what to do to help her. For now you are only going to upset her more if you keep this up. Relax. She's Hermione. She'll pull through right now. It hasn't gotten so far that she can't handle it, and you know that. So cool it. 

"Don't be sorry, Hermione," Ron said. "It isn't your fault that he hurt you." 

"I know," Hermione replied thoughtfully. 

She was staring at the ring. 

"Don't even think it, Hermione!" Harry said sharply. 

"I wasn't." 

Hermione turned on her heal and fled from the room. The two men watched her go in confusion for a moment before realizing that she must be heading for the library. They took off after her. 


End file.
